When mentioning the vocabulary standardization, we usually divide it into the Mandarin vocabulary and the non-Mandarin vocabulary. Some of the foreign students who are studying in intensive Mandarin course in China may wonder the standard of dividing like this. Generally speaking, there are three principle should be obeyed when dividing it, namely, the necessity, the universality and the explicitness.
First of all, the principle of necessity indicates that whether one certain word has the necessity of existence and whether it indicates the unique value in the vocabulary system. The words can be used to express the practical things and the abstract things. No matter what it indicates, it should be the social or psychological things, phenomenon or activity. The words without objective basis have no value of existence because they do not take the responsibility of the communication. As a result, they will be weeded out by the society. It can be reflected in the disappearance of the words in ancient times.
Some of the students who study Mandarin online may know that the principle of universality means that the application of one word should be widely so that is can be accepted and used by most people. The universality principle is a very practical principle. For example, when sorting the characters with different forms, the using frequency of writhing differently is also various. Accordingly, we can keep those words with high frequency in use by following this principle.
About the principle of explicitness, it is discussed from the aspect of the words meanings. That is to say, the meanings of words should be explicit. Following this principle, the words should be understood without vague, various interpretations and erroneous tendency. As a matter of fact, the explicitness is the requirement of the internal system of the words. The ideal relationship of the words should be corresponding but the precondition is the words can express the meaning explicitly. Therefore, the vocabulary system will automatically choose those words expressing clear meanings.
The three main principles mentioned above are closely related. The necessity is the most fundamental principle which is the precondition of the universality and the explicitness. Therefore, when you learn Chinese language, you should know that if there is no necessity, there is no universality and explicitness of vocabulary. The universality is the external condition showing the acceptability while the explicitness is the internal condition which is the essential demand of the vocabulary.