Is Chinese less expressive than many other major languags?

Mandarin has pretty much no inflection, a few time markers, but on the whole words stay exactly the same regardless and understand depends simply on context.

Also, it seems the vocabulary of Mandarin is ultimately is smaller than many other languages. Many linguistics say the upper limit of Mandarin vocabulary can't be any more than 50,000, while languages like English and Russian are thought of being at least in the hundreds of thousands, if not pushing a million in some more liberal estimates.

Inflection is just a type of grammar, I don't understand how inflection would somehow make a language more "expressive" than any other. Some languages don't use this type of grammar, and organize ideas differently; that doesn't mean they can't express the full range of human thoughts and emotions.

It's highly implausible that I know less than 50,000 words in my half-native language...

Surely you didn't mistake words for characters? The Germans also consider wrongly that characters are words, but they don't know character combinations are far far far more productive than separate characters.

mandarin has ONLY 50000 word? you gotta be kidding me, right?

Many linguistics my ass...

The OED has 310,000 entries while the Largest Chinese dictionary (Hanyu Dacidian) has 370,000, you do the math.

LOL, as a Chinese learner i'm very suprised that someone claims Chinese has a small vocabulary...

These are some words they have for 'prostitute' alone.

先生 xiānshēng, 大先生, 小先生
姑娘 gūniang (archaic)
姑娘儿 (姑娘兒) gūniangr (archaic)
红姑娘 (紅姑娘) hónggūniang (沪语)
嫖娼 piáochāng
妓 (or 伎) jì
娼 (or 倡) chāng
倡子 chāngzi
下妓 xiàjì
下流货 xiàliúhuò
串店的 chuàndiànde
乐籍 (樂籍) yuèjí
倈子 láizǐ
倌人 guānrén
內人 nèiren (唐)
公娼 gōngchāng
前头人 qiántóurén (archaic)
半掩门儿 bànyǎnménr
咸水妹 (鹹水妹) xiánshuǐmèi (粤语)
土妓 tǔjì (unlicensed)
土娼 tǔchāng (unlicensed)
土老儿 (土老兒) tǔlǎor
夜度娘 (夜渡娘) yèdùniáng
胭脂女 yānzhinǚ
女郎 nǚláng
妓家 jìjiā
娘子 niángzi
小娘 xiǎoniáng
娼妇 (娼婦) chāngfu
婆惜 póxī (宋元)
娼女 chāngnǚ
商女 shāngnǚ
客娼/客倡 kèchāng
风尘女子 (風塵女子) fēngchén nǚzi
小妮子 xiǎonīzi
幺二 yāoèr (диалект)
录事 (錄事) lùshì, lùshi (archaic)
暗娼 ànchāng (unlicensed)
暗門子 ànménzi (unlicensed)
杜陵花 dùlínghuā
校书 (校書) jiàoshū
残花败柳 (殘花敗柳) cánhuābàiliǔ
油头粉面 (油頭粉面) yóutóufěnmiàn
流娼 liúchāng
淌白 tǎngbái (沪语)
烟花 yānhuā
狎邪 xiáxié
狹斜女 xiáxiénǚ
猥倡(娼) wěichāng
猥妓 wěijì
猱儿 (猱兒) náoér
珠娘 zhūniáng (粤语)
白面子 báimiànzi
眉史 méishǐ
破鞋 pòxié
私娼 / 私倡 sīchāng
窑娼 (窰娼) yáochāng
窑户(窰戶) yáohǔ
窰姐(窑姐) yáojiě / 窰姐兒(窑姐儿) yáojiěr (北方)
粉头 (粉頭) fěntóu
老举 (老舉) lǎojǔ (粤语)
婊子/表子 biǎozi
脿/婊 biǎo
骚婊子(騷婊子) sāobiǎozi
花姐 huājiě
花娘 huāniáng
花旦 huādàn
荡妇 (蕩婦) dàngfù
莺燕 yīngyàn
莺鹰燕燕 yīng yīngyànyàn
讨人 (討人) tǎorén (方言)
贤歌 (賢歌) xiángē
卖春妇 (賣春婦) màichūnfù
卖笑妇 (賣笑婦) màixiàofù
野花(儿) (野花兒) yěhuār
野鸡 (野雞) yějī
野鳬 (野鳧) yěfú
雉妓 zhìjì
顶老 (頂老) dǐnglǎo
客妻 kèqī
鸨 (鴇) bǎo
鸨儿 (鴇兒) bǎoér
鸨妓 (鴇妓) bǎojì
鸨母 (鴇母) bǎomǔ
青楼 (青樓) qīnglóu

莺燕 (鶯燕) yīngyàn
莺鹰燕燕 (鶯鷹燕燕) yīngyīngyànyàn
姊妹 zǐmèi
花丛 (花叢) huācóng
花国 (花國) huāguó
花界 huājiè

Though in English we have words like whore, slut, bitch and pimp etc. But nothing really compare to these.

Less expressive?

I think Chinese is an excessively expressive language.