民族共同语的词汇规范工作难度高，问题多，争议大，其根本原因在于没有一个明确、合理、可操作的词汇规范标准。在汉语快速国际化，宽松包容的语言观逐渐成为学界共识的背景下，这一理论缺陷所造成的混乱与弊端愈加严重。基于民族共同语标准适度多元的理念，本文建议放弃“以北方话为基础方言”这一不切实际的表述，将现行普通话定义中的词汇标准微调为“以北京话词汇为基础词汇”。北京话词汇的基础作用主要体现在共同语区域变体的词汇与北京话之间具有很高的相互理解度。方言词汇如要进入民族共同语，它首先要进入共同语的区域变体。而方言词汇能否进入共同语的区域变体取决于相关方言词汇是否跟区域变体中的既有词汇系统契合（体系性），在共同语区域变体中是否稳定（稳定性），是否在词汇方面可以跟北京话之间进行无障碍沟通（可理解性）。

A deep-rooted problem has been haunting the lexical standardization of Mandarin Chinese since the very beginning: there is no explicit and precise standard for Mandarin lexis. This defect in language planning should bear the primary responsibility for the confusion, contradiction and controversy in the standardization work. To tackle this problem, which demands more prompt solutions in the context of the fast internationalization of Mandarin Chinese, it is proposed in this paper that the Beijing dialect, the de facto foundation for Mandarin lexis, should be explicitly defined as the lexical foundation for various Mandarin varieties. This re-definition has left a flexible room for the diversity of regional words in Mandarin varieties, with constraints only on intelligibility, morphemes and word-formation rules. To technically demarcate the boundaries between Mandarin variety lexis and dialectal words, systematicy, stability and intelligibility can be adopted as diagnostic criteria.