Closing questions about differences

Question

I see a tendency of close votes on my favorite kind of questions: ones asking about subtle differences between close synonyms. They are usually closed for excuses like "lack of context" (I want to learn the general usage) or "general reference". The dictionary usually defines each of the terms by giving the remaining synonyms, rarely detailing subtleties like where they differ in particular, where one would be preferable over another, or which ones would be rather used figuratively, while others are literal. While one frequently can convey the difference from a dictionary, it's a difficult and often futile exercise of picking out little but meaningful differences between multiple, often long and fuzzy entries all stating mostly the same thing but in different words. A question which bundles the synonyms and an answer which underlines their differences is much better in understanding their correct use than a bunch of nearly-identical definitions.

So, my request to the moderators: Please, stop.

Examples:

• The usage of slander, defame, vilify, and calumniate (two close votes already and I still don't know how "calumniate" differs from the rest)
• "Blackness" vs "darkness" ("You need to provide more context". No, you tell me which is applicable in what kind of context!)
• https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/88108/but-while-whereas-though-although-however
• What are the differences between "element" and "item" regarding a list
• "To work for" vs. "to work in" vs. "to work at" (a very nasty close, finding this in a dictionary is a real pain)

Most others already got deleted - closed questions with negative score.

Also: The dictionary definitions are often far too spartan to show subtle differences like areas of usage (scientific, law), indicate words that shift out of use but didn't become obsolete yet, words rarely used, emotional connotations associated with given synonyms, specific cases where given words are not synonymous, and other differences too subtle for dictionary entries.

StoneyB noted correctly: answering these questions is difficult. It's definitely not mere dictionary lookup. I wish people who mark them as GR try their hand at answering them in a thorough and detailed manner. They might change their opinion as to whether this is answered by a mere dictionary lookup or not.

Answer 1

The problem is, many of these questions are written poorly. Perhaps they don't show any research, or maybe they don't seem to be grounded in practical, real-world problems faced by the O.P.

You may be onto something, though. Sometimes we get so jaded from a barrage of bad questions that we may be overly harsh on a question with a lot of potential.

That said, your plea – Please, stop closing these questions – might be the wrong solution.

I'd like to offer two suggestions:

First, maybe you could write a blog entry that explains in great detail how to write a good difference-in-meaning question. It might include something along the lines of:

• Don't simply ask, "What's the difference between these words?" Instead, be sure to include definitions from a dictionary, to demonstrate you've already done some preliminary research, and to give the rest of the community a starting point to work from.
• Don't simply announce that you're confused, and can't figure out the nuances. Instead, explain how your preliminary research has dead-ended, and why you're still confused.
• If this question arose from something that you read, don't merely ask about the words, and not give us any context. Instead, share your original sources – they often provide vital context and relevance.

I'd recommend including some examples of well-written and poorly-written questions, so it's very apparent how to ask, and how not to ask, a difference-in-meaning question.

Once that gets posted as a resource, some ELU regulars might start pointing to that blog entry with a link, along with an exhortation to follow that guidance and improve the question, after another user – particularly a new user – writes a poor question.

Second, until this becomes a common practice, when you run across a question that has potential, you might try making the edits yourself, since you are the one who is so passionate about this. You've been at this long enough to know the drill: a mediocre question gets posted, followed by a comment ("What did the dictionary tell you?"), followed by the first couple of close votes. At that point, feel free to intervene. If you think the question is worth saving, then salvage it. Look up the words in a dictionary, post the definitions, and include some language in the question so that it's no longer a general reference question.

Answer 2

I understand your point of view. I believe these questions are very much On Topic—what’s more central to good usage than the subtle discriminations they ask for? And I agree that 'General Reference' is usually a bad reason for closing these questions; only a handful of dictionaries (and only a small proportion of entries in those dictionaries) describe the distinctions in enough detail to be of any value.

On the other hand, I sympathize with those who vote to close these questions. They’re very hard to answer, and in practice they’re mostly answered very inadequately: either impressionistically, subjectively, idiolectically, or without careful attention to differences of register and context.

And those answers are built into the questions. It’s one thing to say “In this sentence, in this context, in this register, vilify is clearly a better choice than defame”; it’s very likely that even if we don’t all agree, we can at least all pin down what it is we’re disagreeing about. But it’s quite a different thing to try, in effect, to define distinctions which will guide a speaker or writer competently in all conceivable sentences, contexts and registers. Words don’t have abstract meanings, only immanent ones. We learn how to use synonyms not by memorizing and applying their dictionary definitions, but by encountering them in use, in our reading and speaking. And since every one of us has read a different corpus of works and conversed with different people, we’re all going to locate the lexical penumbrae in different places and come up with different distinctions.

So it seems to me that these questions are inherently Not Constructive, except where the poster has framed his question in terms sufficiently narrow to allow us to bring our very different linguistic experiences to bear on solving a specific problem rather than inventing factitious rules.

Answer 3

A differences question that doesn't include the definitions of the words in question is general reference. If it does include definitions, it is not general reference. Unfortunately, many (most?) differences questions start off as the former, and only later acquire edits that qualify them for the latter. In the meantime, they will have likely collected a close vote or two, and then they fall victim to another unfortunate fact, namely that we have some trigger-happy high-rep users who absolutely adore closing questions as general reference. Not much to do in that case except vote to reopen, and hope people pile on that as quickly as they did on the close votes.

I don't see a need to precisely define the context for a differences question, either. The idea that this makes it very hard to answer and thus "not a real question" is balderdash, IMO. ELU is supposed to be for experts, which implies that hard questions should be encouraged, not made to feel unwelcome. You really only need to specify the context if the difference between the words is trivially obvious, except in that context.

Answer 4

I agree that this is a problem. None of the above questions is general reference. I think that the reason for these draconian standards falls somewhere between laziness and a misunderstanding. A dictionary more often than not tells you nothing about the subtleties of the words' definitions. In fact, many times the dictionary definitions are practically indistinguishable. If you actually look up the definition of some of these words, you'll find that they do not indicate the difference between terms. Giving some examples:

slander: The action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.
defame: Damage the good reputation of (someone); slander or libel. (slander is actually in the definition of defame)

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but: Used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned.
while: At the same time that; although; whereas; and
though: Despite the fact that; although
although: In spite of the fact that; even though; however; but
however: Used to introduce a statement that contrasts with or seems to contradict something that has been said previously.

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element: An entity that is a single member of a set
item: An individual article or unit, esp. one that is part of a list, collection, or set.

If you consider any of these definitions to be ambiguous or circular, then I think that you should consider re-opening the questions.