Closure Properties of

Context-Free Languages

Osama Awwad
Department of Computer Science
Western Michigan University
November 30, 2019

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Closure properties of CFL
 Closure properties consider operations on
CFL that are guaranteed to produce a CFL
 The CFL’s are closed under substitution, union,
concatenation, closure (star), reversal,
homomorphism and inverse homomorphism.
 CFL’s are not closed under intersection (but the
intersection of a CFL and a regular language is
always a CFL), complementation, and set-
difference.

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Substitution
 Each symbol in the strings of one language is replaced by
an entire CFL language
 Useful in proving some other closure properties of CFL
 Example: S(0) = {anbn| n 1}, S(1) = {aa, bb} is a
substitution on alphabet  ={0, 1}.

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Substitution
 Theorem: If a substitution s assigns a CFL to every symbol in the alphabet
of a CFL L, then s(L) is a CFL.
 Proof
 Let G = (V, , P, S) be grammar for L
 Let Ga= (Va, Ta, Pa, Sa) be the grammar for each a   with VVa =
 G= (V, T, P, S) for s(L) where
 V = V  Va
 T = union of Ta for all a  
 P consists of
 All productions in any Pa for a  
 In productions of P, each terminal a is replaced by Sa
 A detailed proof that this construction works is in the reader.
 Intuition: this replacement allows anystring in La to take the place
of any occurrence of a in any string of L.

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 Example (1)
 L = {0n1n| n 1}, generated by the grammar
S0S1|01,
 s(0) = {anbm|m n}, generated by the grammar SaSb|A;
AaA| ab,
 s(1)={ab, abc}, generated by the grammar S  abA, A  c
|
 Rename second and third S’s to S0 and S1 respectively.
Rename second A to B. Resulting grammars are:
S0S1 | 01
S0aS0b | A; AaA | ab
S1abB; Bc | 

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Example(1) Contd...
 In the first grammar replace 0 by S0 and 1 by
S1. The combined grammar:

G = ({S, S0, S1, A, B}, {a, b}, P, S),

where P = {S  S0SS1 | S0S1, S0 aS0b | A, A

aA | ab, S1abB, B c | }

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Application of Substitution
 Closure under union of CFL’s L1 and L2
 Closure under concatenation of CFL’s L1 and L2
 Closure under Kleene’s star (closure * and positive
closure +) of CFL’s L1
 Closure under homomorphism of CFL Li for every
ai 

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 Union
 Use L= {a, b}, s(a) = L1 and s(b)=L2.s(L)= L1L2
 To get grammar for L1  L2 ?
 Add new start symbol S and rules S  S1|S2
 We get grammar G = (V, T, P, S) where
V = V1  V2  { S }, where S  V1  V2
P = P 1  P2  { S  S1 | S 2 }
 Example:
 L1 = { anbn | n  0 } , L2 = { bnan | n  0 }
 G1 : S1  aS1b | , G2 : S2  bS2a | 
 L1  L2 is G = ({S1, S2 , S}, {a, b}, P, S) where P = {P1  P2 
{S  S1 | S2 }}

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Concatenation
 Let L={ab}, s(a)=L1 and s(b)=L2. Then s(L)=L1L2
 To get grammar for L1L2 ?
 Add new start symbol and rule S  S1S2
 We get G = (V, T, P, S) where
V = V1  V2  { S }, where S  V1  V2
P = P1  P2  { S  S1S2 }
 Example:
 L1 = { anbn | n  0 } with G1: S1  aS1b | 
 L2 = { bnan | n  0 } with G2 : S2  bS2a | 
 L1L2 = { anb{n+m}am | n, m  0 } with G = ({S, S1, S2}, {a, b}, {S
 S1S2, S1  aS1b | , S2  bS2a}, S)

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Kleene’s star
 Use L={a}* or L={a}+, s(a)=L1. Then s(L)=L1*
(or s(L)=L1+).
 Example:
 L1 = {anbn | n  0} (L1)*= { a{n1}b{n1} ... a{nk}b{nk} | k  0 and ni
 0 for all i }
 L2 = { a{n } | n  1 }, (L2)*= a*
2

 To get grammar for (L1)*

 Add new start symbol S and rules S  SS1 | .
 We get G = (V, T, P, S) where
V = V1  { S }, where S  V1
P = P1  { S  SS1 | }

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Homomorphism
 Closure under homomorphism of CFL L for
every a
 Suppose L is a CFL over alphabet  and h is a
homomorphism on .
 Let s be a substitution that replaces every a 
, by h(a). ie s(a) = {h(a)}.
 Then h(L) = s(L).
 h(L) ={h(a1)…h(ak) | k  0} where h(ak) is a
homomorphism for every ak  .
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Reversal
 The CFL’s are closed under reversal
 This means then if L is a CFL, so LR is a CFL
 It is enough to reverse each production of a
CFL for L, i.e., substitute A by AR
 Example:
 L = { anbn | n  0 } with P : S  aSb | 
 LR = {bnan | n  0 } with PR : S  bSa | 

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Intersection
 The CFL’s are not closed under intersection
 Example:
 L = {0n1n2n|n  1} is not context-free.
 L1 = {0n1n2i |n  1,i 1 }, L2 = {0i1n2n |n  1,i 1 }
are CFL’s with corresponding grammars for L1: S-
>AB; A->0A1 | 01; B->2B | 2 , and for L2: S -
>AB; A->0A | 0; B->1B2 | 12.
 However, L = L1  L2
 Thus intersection of CFL’s is not CFL

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Intersection with RL
 Theorem: If L is CFL and R is a regular
language, then L  R is a CFL.
FA Accept/

AND Reject

PDA

Stack
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 Intersection with RL Proof
 P=(QP, , , P, qP, Z0, FP) be PDA to accept CFL by final
state
 A=(QA, , A, qA, FA) be a DFA for RL
 Construct PDA P = (Q, , , , qo, Z0, F) where
 Q = Qp X Q A
 qo= (qp, qA)
 F = (FP X FA)
  is in the form ((q, p), a, X) = ((r, s), ) such that
1. s = A(p, a)
2. (r, ) is in P(q, a, X)
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Proof Contd…
 For each move of PDA P, we make the same
move in PDA P and also we carry along the
state of DFA A in a second component of P.
 P accepts a string w iff both P and A accept w.
 w is in L  R.
 The moves ((qp, qA), w, Z) |-*P ((q, p), , ) are
possible iff (qp, w, Z) |-*P (q, , ) moves and p
= *(qA, w) transitions are possible.

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Set Difference with RL
 For a CFL’s L, and a regular language R.
L - R is a CFL.
Proof:
 R is regular and RC is also regular
 L - R = L  RC
 Complement of of Regular Language is regular
 Intersection of a CFL and a regular language is CFL

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Complementation
 LC is not necessarily a CFL
 Proof:
 Assume that CFLs were closed under complement.
 If L is a CFL then LC is a CFL
 Since CFLs are closed under union, L1C L2C is a CFL
 And by our assumption (L1C L2C) C is a CFL
 But (L1C L2C) C = L1 L2 which we just showed isn’t
necessarily a CFL.
 Contradiction!

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Set Difference
 L1 and L2 are CFLs. L1 - L2 is not
necessarily a CFL
Proof:
 L1 = * - L
 * is regular and is also CFL
 But * - L = LC
 If CFLs were closed under set difference, then *
- L = LC would always be a CFL.
 But CFL’s are not closed under complementation

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Inverse homomorphism
 To recall: If h is a homomorphism, and L is any
language, then h-1(L), called an inverse
homomorphism, is the set of all strings w such
that h(w)L
 The CFL’s are closed under inverse
homomorphism.
 Theorem: If L is a CFL and h is a
homomorphism, then h-1(L) is a CFL

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Inverse homomorphism – proof

Buffer
a h(a)
Input h

Accept/
PDA
Reject

Stack

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Proof Contd...
 After input a is read, h(a) is placed in a
buffer.
 Symbols of h(a) are used one at a time and
fed to PDA being simulated.
 Only when the buffer is empty does the
PDA read another of its input symbol and
apply homomorphism to it.

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Proof Contd...

 Suppose h applies to symbols of alphabet Σ and produces

strings in T*.
 Let PDA P = (Q, T, Γ, δ, q0, Z0, F) that accept CFL L by
final state.
 Construct a new PDA P = (Q, Σ, Γ, δ, (q0, ), Z0, F X {})
to simulate language of h-1(L), where
 Q is the set of pairs (q, x) such that
 q is a state in Q
 x is a suffix of some string h(a) for some input string a in Σ

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Proof Contd...
 δ is defined by
 δ((q, ), a, X) = {((q, h(a)),a,X)}
 If δ(q, b, X) = {(p, )} where bT or b =  then δ((q,
bx), , X) = {((p, x), )}
 The start state of P’ is (q0, )
 The accepting state of P is (q, ), where q is an
accepting state of P.
 (q0,h(w),Z0)|-*P (p,,) iff ((q0,),w,Z0) |-*P ((p, ), , )
 P accepts h(w) if and only if P accepts w, because of
the way the accepting states of P are defined.
 Thus L(P)=h-1(L(P))
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Q&A

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Thank You