中文摘要：

小句和句子分别是篇章信息处理的基本单位和复合单位。但是汉语中,这两个概念至今未有公认的适用于语言信息处理的界定,这种状况阻碍了汉语信息处理的发展。该文将汉语的句子大致界定为自足的广义话题结构,把小句界定为基于广义话题结构的话题自足句,并提出了这样界定的语言学依据和认知依据。

英文摘要：

In text information processing, clause is regarded as the basic unit and sentence the compound unit. Thus far, a lack of operational definitions for these two concepts hinders the development of Chinese information processing. This research defines sentence as Sufficient Generalized Topic Structure roughly and clause as Topic Sufficient Clause based on it. Both definitions are put forward with linguistic and cognitive foundations.