10

I think is redundant since we already have , and , if necessary. The 60 or so tagged questions do not disagree with me by much.

Its current info says:

This tag is for questions seeking a single word or phrase which can replace a larger phrase or idea while conveying the same meaning.

I propose we either delete the tag, or make it a synonym for SWRs. Thoughts?

3
  • 1
    It looks like a tag specifically meant to find hypernyms. Another option might be to rename it hypernym-requests, if it has any value. I'm not so sure if it does though, and this is certainly more obscure. We don't even have S.W.R. tags for the major parts of speech. Maybe we should though.
    – Tonepoet
    Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 18:15
  • 1
    @Tonepoet I don't think such sub-tags are necessary. What are we going to make next? verb-requests, noun-requests, and so on? ;)
    – NVZ Mod
    Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 18:16
  • 7
    Let's lump, not split. Get rid of it!
    – ab2
    Commented Jan 23, 2018 at 18:18

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

Assuming the upvotes on the question imply that we should make these two tags synonyms, I have proposed the tag synonym here:

https://english.stackexchange.com/tags/single-word-requests/synonyms

Please vote it up, in the link, if you agree.

4
  • 2
    8 upvotes for the OP, yet only 1 upvote at that link (mine). Needs three more.
    – Mitch
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 22:08
  • It's hard to read what votes on a question mean on meta, or even a complex answer. I voted for the question since I thought it is a good question for us to be considering, but I do not strongly endorse or disapprove of the proposal, and since the burden of the doubt generally lies with maintaining the status quo, I am unmotivated to actually make that vote yet. A mere principle of combining wherever possible would see idiom-requests, single-word requests, proverb requests, ect. in a single requests tag. We need to consider how specific the categorization should be to effectively serve its job.
    – Tonepoet
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 23:53
  • 1
    @Tonepoet Fair enough, but what's burden of the doubt?
    – NVZ Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2019 at 2:30
  • 1
    @NVZ I mixed two related idiomatic phrases are burden of proof with the benefit of the doubt in a way that made sense to me at the time. I am not quite the first person to do so, with the most reasonable example being this A.B.A. law journal article, but I doubt it is common practice. In any case, I should have paid attention to the upticks on ab2's comment.
    – Tonepoet
    Commented Jul 18, 2019 at 21:13
-1

It seems to me that the description as quoted

This tag is for questions seeking a single word or phrase which can replace a larger phrase or idea while conveying the same meaning

is asking for synonyms of a stated word or phrase, where the answer could simply replace the word(s) the OP doesn't like.

Single-word-request questions tend to be the "What's the word for my daughter's boyfriend's ugliest uncle?" type questions or "What is this part of the object in this picture called?", which don't fit the same pattern.

We don't have a tag, but it seems to me that that's what should be linked to.

It may well be that most if not all of the current questions are actually or questions, but just because the wrong tag has been used is not a reason to synonymise them.

7
  • I suppose this meta could be tagged "status-completed" since the tags has been synonymised.
    – NVZ Mod
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 4:21
  • But the tags do not have the same purpose.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 6:26
  • You'd be right, ideally those tags are to be used for different purposes. But I suppose most users (laymen) don't see it that way. To them "word substitution" might read as substituting a concept/idea with a word or a phrase, or even substituting a blank in the sentence given to convey the meaning they wish to, etc. for which the SWR tag exists.
    – NVZ Mod
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 6:31
  • So the correct thing to do is to put the forty questions right, not make the tags synonyms wrongly.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 6:34
  • But look at it this way, even if it is requesting a word for a stated phrase rather than what's a word for bla bla.., it can still be classified under requests for words, viz. SWR. What do you think? Life is easier with fewer overlapping tags.
    – NVZ Mod
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 6:37
  • I've already said what I think. Those questions should have been tagged with the right tag. We have lost a discriminator.
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 6:43
  • 1
    We don't need a synonym-requests tag. We shouldn't even have a distinct phrase-requests tag.
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 11:31

You must log in to answer this question.

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