Motivation For Formal Grammars

motivation for formal grammars
Natural Languages are usually described

by rules like the one shown below
Example:
(1) sentence  noun-phrase verb-phrase
(2) noun-phrase  article noun
(3) article  a | the
(4) noun  girl | dog
(5) verb-phrase  verb noun-phrase
(6) verb  sees | pets
Grammars Produce Languages
 Language: the set of strings (of terminals) that

can be generated from the start symbol by derivation:
sentence
 noun-phrase verb-phrase . (rule 1)
 article noun verb-phrase . (rule 2)
 the noun verb-phrase . (rule 3)
 the girl verb-phrase . (rule 4)
 the girl verb noun-phrase . (rule 5)
 the girl sees noun-phrase . (rule 6)
 the girl sees article noun . (rule 2)
 the girl sees a noun . (rule 3)
 the girl sees a dog . (rule 4)
•Language: the programs (character streams)
allowed
•Grammar rules (productions): "produce" the

language
left-hand side, right-hand side
•nonterminals (structured names):
noun-phrase verb-phrase
•terminals (tokens): . dog
•metasymbols:  (“consists of”) | (choice)
•start symbol: the nonterminal that stands for
the entire structure (sentence, program).
–sentence
•E.g., if-statement  if (expression) statement else
statement
Context-Free Grammar
 Context-Free Grammars (CFG)

 Noam Chomsky, 1950s.
 Define context-free languages.
 Four components:
 terminals, nonterminals, one start symbol,
productions (left-hand side: one single
nonterminal)
CFG ’s
Context-free grammar( CFG or just grammar) is

4-tuple denoted G=(V,T,P,S) ,
Where
V is a finite set of variables or nonterminals or syntactic
categories
T is a finite set of terminals or tokens
P is a finite set of production rules in the form

A   ,where A is a variable and  is a string of symbols from
(V T)*
S is a special variable called the start symbol

What does “Context-Free” mean?
 Left-hand side of a production is always
one single nonterminal:
 The nonterminal is replaced by the
corresponding right-hand side, no matter
where the nonterminal appears. (i.e., there
is no context in such
replacement/derivation.)
 Context-sensitive grammar (context-
sensitive languages)
 Why context-free?
CFG Example 1
 E → ID
| NUM
| E*E
| E/E
| E+E
| E-E
| (E)
ID → a | b |…|z
NUM → 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Grammars Produce Languages
Does the above grammar produce the following
sentence (a*b)+c Start with start symbol of the CFG
E → E+E
Left most derivation
→ ( E)+E
→ ( E*E)+E
Notations
→ (ID*E)+E
G
→ ( a * E)+E E ==> E +E (single step left most derivation)
lm
→ ( a * ID)+E
*
E ==> E+E (zero or more step derivation)
→ ( a * b)+ID lm
*
Example: E ==> (a*b)+c
→ ( a * b) + c G
Context – free languages (CFL ’s)
The languages described by context –free grammars are
known as CFL ’s
formal notation:
The language generated by G [denoted L(G)] is {w | w is
== w }
*
in T* and S ==>
G
That is , a string is in L(G) if:
1) the string consists solely of terminals
2) the string can be derived from S
A string of terminals and variables is called
a sentential form if S ==>
* 
==
CFG Example 2
 S → if E then S else S
| begin S L
| print E
L → end
|;SL
E → NUM = NUM
NUM → 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Parse Tree
 Represents the derivation steps from start
symbol to the string
 Given the derivations used in the parsing of an

input sequence, a parse tree has
 the start symbol as the root
 the terminals of the input sequence as leafs
 for each production A → X1 X2 ... Xn used in a

derivation, a node A with children X1 X2 ... Xn
Parse Tree Example 1
CFG:
expr
expr → expr + expr | expr * expr | (expr) | number
number → number digit |digit
digit → 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
expr expr
+
Input Sequence: 3+4*5 number expr * expr
digit number number
3 digit digit
4 5
What is Parsing?
 Given a grammar and a token string:

 determine if the grammar can generate the
token string?
 i.e., is the string a legal program in the
language?
 In other words, to construct a parse

tree for the token string.
What’s significant about
parse tree?
 A parse tree gives a unique syntactic

structure
 Leftmost, rightmost derivation
 There is only one leftmost derivation for a

parse tree, and symmetrically only one
rightmost derivation for a parse tree.
Example
expr  expr + expr | expr  expr | ( expr ) | number
number  number digit | digit
digit  0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
parse tree expr
leftmost derivation expr

expr + expr
expr + expr
number expr * expr
number expr * expr

digit number number
digit number number

3 digit digit
3 digit digit
4 5
4 5

Motivation For Formal Grammars

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motivation for formal grammars

Natural Languages are usually described

 Language: the set of strings (of terminals) that

•Grammar rules (productions): "produce" the

 Context-Free Grammars (CFG)

Context-free grammar( CFG or just grammar) is

T is a finite set of terminals or tokens

P is a finite set of production rules in the form

S is a special variable called the start symbol

 Given the derivations used in the parsing of an

 the start symbol as the root

 the terminals of the input sequence as leafs

 for each production A → X1 X2 ... Xn used in a

Input Sequence: 3+4*5 number expr * expr

digit number number

 Given a grammar and a token string:

 In other words, to construct a parse

 A parse tree gives a unique syntactic

 Leftmost, rightmost derivation

 There is only one leftmost derivation for a

parse tree expr

leftmost derivation expr

number expr * expr

digit number number

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Input Sequence: 3+45 number expr expr