1

The tag excerpt for (513 Qs) is currently:

It's the set of words used by a language, but also all of the words within a language known by a single person.

This breaks the tag excerpt guidelines: we're not meant to define "vocabulary", we're meant to describe when to use the tag. I'd edit it, only I have no idea when to use this tag.

Question: What is the tag for?

In case it helps figure this out, I include some data below:

Questions with this tag

Questions with only this tag

(Data Explorer query.)

Questions which were retagged

In the last few years, the tag was added to these questions...

  1. May 2020: What is the function of "根本" in 这杯咖啡根本不值得花四十元人民币?
  2. August 2016: What is the best translation for 会说? (it was edited away prior, then re-added)
  3. March 2016: Ways to write "strength"
  4. August 2015: What is the meaning of 看在 and 分上?
  5. August 2015: Is "谐仿" an actual word in Chinese?
  6. July 2015: many ways to say Today
  7. June 2015: What's the difference between 帐户 and 账户? (where it was retagged from )
  8. December 2014: Difference between 剧本 and 脚本？ (where it was retagged from )
  9. December 2014: How to properly say "World's fair"
  10. December 2014: Do people use 刻苦 nowadays? (where it was retagged from )
  11. January 2014: For video games terminology, what is the proper translation for "range"
  12. ...

(Data Explorer query.)

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

How is the tag currently used

It seems the tag is used to loosely identify questions about:

  • specific terms (then might be fine)
  • sets of words, as opposed to one single word (then , , , might be fine according to the actual content of the question)
  • difference in usage between one or more words, in which case or the narrower seem to make sense

I'll try to analyze the questions you linked one by one.

Analysis of linked questions

Questions with this tag

Questions with only this tag

Questions which were retagged

In the last few years, the tag was added to these questions...

  1. May 2020: What is the function of "根本" in 这杯咖啡根本不值得花四十元人民币? [usage] seems better
  2. August 2016: What is the best translation for 会说? [translation] seems just fine. [word-choice] might help disambiguate
  3. March 2016: Ways to write "strength" [word] or [word-choice] might be fine
  4. August 2015: What is the meaning of 看在 and 分上? [vocabulary] seems unnecessary
  5. August 2015: Is "谐仿" an actual word in Chinese? [vocabulary] seems unnecessary
  6. July 2015: many ways to say Today [vocabulary] seems unnecessary
  7. June 2015: What's the difference between 帐户 and 账户? [usage], [difference], [word-choice] seem fine
  8. December 2014: Difference between 剧本 and 脚本？ [vocabulary] seems unnecessary
  9. December 2014: How to properly say "World's fair" [translation] seem fine
  10. December 2014: Do people use 刻苦 nowadays? [colloquialism] [usage] or [meaning] seem better
  11. January 2014: For video games terminology, what is the proper translation for "range" [terminology] seem better, optionally [technology]

Can we find proper usage guidelines for this tag?

tl;dr yes.

I think we can conclude that the tag, given its current definition, isn't used properly. Even more so, it doesn't even appear to be very useful, given the other tags that more meaningfully can describe the questions we examined here.

I can imagine questions where this tag might actually be appropriate, given its definition. For example:

  • "How can I improve my Mandarin vocabulary" (might even be off-topic as opinion-based...)
  • "How many words are required to read a modern newspaper?"

So the tag might be used productively when:

  • asking questions about one's own vocabulary, like memorization or learning techniques, usage of flashcards, HSK vocabulary requirements, etc.
  • asking questions about general vocabulary that can be answered more or less objectively (e.g. quoting research outcomes), as total known hanzi in Chinese, minimum words to read newspapers/books/texts/papers, research about average number of chars/words known by different age groups, and the like
  • questions about Cantonese-specific Standard Written Chinese that don't focus on a particular character or word.

Conclusion

Given the above, I propose to clarify the tag usage via excerpt/wiki, and proceed with retagging.

2

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .