中文的「字」、「詞」與「片語」往往不易分辨其間界線。「詞」可以界定為句中最小意義單位。由此定義引申，「中文常用詞的出現次數」（劉、莊，1975）一書是根據劃分詞的一些細則所分析計算的結果。命題可以界定為句中最小敘述單位。根據這個定義及命題分析的各種細則，「中文敘述單位的出現次數」（劉、吳，準備中）發現平均每句約有六個敘述眾位。本文的目的是在於提出中文「詞」及「命題」的分析計算所依據的所有詳細原則，以供參考。

　　　　　In the Chinese language, characters, words, and phrases are often indistinguishable. Words may be defined as smallest units of meaning in sentences. By relying on this definition toge-ther with some guiding rules, Frequency count of 40,000 Chinese words (Liu, Chuang, and Wang, 1975) obtained approximately 40,000 Chinese words. Propositions may be defined as smallest descriptive units in sentences consisting of two parts: one part describing and one part being described. By using this definition together with a number of guiding rules. Frequency count of Chinese propositions (Liu, and Wu, in preparation) obtained on the average six propositionsper sentence. The proposes of this article were to present in detail the guiding rules and procedures used in these computational analyses of Chinese words and propositions.