Editing QAWiki:Guide/Mentions (section)

== General guidelines for mentions ==

We start with some general guidelines for mentions applicable to both entity and property mentions.

=== Phrases are substrings of questions or their aliases ===

Select phrases that are substrings of questions or question aliases and that end at a word boundary (e.g., if a phrase is plural, keep it plural; do not split words). Be sure to select the correct language (we recommend preferring higher-level language codes like <code>fr</code> unless otherwise justified).

=== Be liberal when adding mentions ===

We recommend to be quite liberal when adding mentions. There are in some cases many ways to write the same query that may use the same combinations of entities and mentions. For example, for the question "[[Item:Q172|''Which U.S. president had the most spouses?'']]", we can offer entity mentions for "''U.S.''" ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30 Q30]) and "''president''" ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30461 Q30461]) even if there is a specific entity for "''U.S. president''" ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11696 Q11696]). Likewise, for a mention like "''wives''", you can add the property [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P26 P26 (spouse)], which though not expressing exactly the same property, is likely to be used in such a query given the lack of a specific ''wife'' property in Wikidata. (See '''Super property''' below.)

=== A mention can link to many entities and/or properties ===

The same phrase can have multiple relevant mentions, and can mix entity and property mentions. For example, in the question "[[Item:Q19|''What is the capital of Ireland?'']]", the phrase "''capital''" corresponds not only to the property [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P36 P36 (''capital'')], but also the entity [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5119 Q5119 (''capital city'')]. We recommend, whenever possible, to add any mentions or links that might be useful in order to interpret the question, translate it to a query, etc.

=== A question can import mentions from other questions ===

In some cases we may want to add variants of a particular question, or otherwise related questions, that share a lot of the same mentions. In this case, we can import the mentions from another question using the QAWiki property [[Property:P47|P47 (imports mention from)]]. For example, the questions "[[Item:Q394|''What is the largest moon of the Solar System by mass?'']]" and "[[Item:Q394|''What is the largest moon of the Solar System by mass?'']]" both import mentions from the base (ambiguous) question "[[Item:Q393|''What is the largest moon of the Solar System?'']]". Additional mentions can be added. Imported mentions that do not appear as a phrase anywhere in a question or question alias of the indicated language can safely be ignored. Cycles of [[Property:P47|P47 (imports mention from)]] should be avoided.

=== Avoid duplicating mentions across language dialects ===

In the case of questions in different dialects of the same language, we recommend only adding the mentions that change from the general language. For example, in "[[Item:Q245|''What are the colors of the French flag?'']]" (<code>en</code>) and "[[Item:Q245|''What are the colours of the French flag?'']]" (<code>en-UK</code>), it is sufficient to add <code>en-UK</code> mentions for "''colours''" and not repeat mentions for "''French''", '"'flag''", etc., if defined already for <code>en</code>.

=== Use discontinuous mention phrases where useful ===

A key mention might not be continuous in a particular query. For example, in the question "[[Item:Q296|''What volcanos in Iceland are active?'']]", an important mention is for the Wikidata entity [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1330974 Q1330974 (''active volcano'')]. In this case, we recommend using the symbol <code>*</code> to represent a wildcard that can be used to omit one or more words from the question when specifying the phrase of the mention, such that the phrase for the aforementioned mention becomes "''volcanos * active''", keeping the order of words in the question. Similar cases can apply for property mentions. For example, in the question alias "[[Item:Q112|''On what date was Hey Jude published?'']]", we can link the discontinuous mention "''date * published''" to the Wikidata property [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P577 P577 (''publication date'')]. In all such cases, <code>*</code> replaces one or more words in the question.

=== Phrases of different mentions can overlap ===

We recommend adding ''overlapping mentions'', i.e., phrases referring to entities that overlap in the question (often one will be contained in a larger phrase). For example, for the question "[[Item:Q172|''Which U.S. president had the most spouses?'']]", we recommend adding mentions for "''U.S.''" ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30 Q30]), "''president''" ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30461 Q30461] / [https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Property:P35 P35]) and "''U.S. president''" ([https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11696 Q11696]), even though they overlap.