Abstract: The two sides of the strait, although separated by only a narrow strip of water, were out of touch for a long time because of historical and political reasons. As a result, the two sides have many differences in politics, economy, culture, and education. As language is the most important part of social activities, the differences must have influenced the language. Language is also the major tool for communication. In the past years, the two sides have had frequent exchanges and interactions, and the influence of language differences on such exchanges are becoming more conspicuous. The language difference is mainly reflected in the vocabulary, which is a most sensitive and prompt reflex of social development among other language elements. From the perspective of semantics and morphology, the vocabulary difference exists in heteromorphic synonyms and homographs, particularly the former. The difference in heteromorphic synonyms is categorized in two types: difference within the same language and the difference in loan words. The difference in semantic visual representations of loan words is more obvious.

Key words: two sides of the strait, vocabulary, heteromorphic synonyms, semantics, imagery features, visual representation