On the structure of context-sensitive grammars

It is well known that the family of context-sensitive grammars generate languages which are not context-free and that it is undecidable whether a context-sensitive grammar generates a context-free language. However, the mechanism by which the use of context allows a non-context-free language to be generated is not well understood. In this paper we attempt to focus on this problem by surveying some of the results which speak to two questions: (i) What constraints can be placed on the form of the rules of context-sensitive grammars without restricting the weak generative capacity? (ii) What (nontrivial) constraints can be placed on the form of the rules of context-sensitive grammars such that only context-free languages will be generated?     

Dynamic Syntax Specification Using Grammar Forms

A conceptually simple scheme is exhibited for specifying syntactically correct programs of declarative, block-structured programming languages. The method is then demonstrated on a selected subset of PL/1. The scheme itself is based on grammar forms, a concept recently introduced to provide a unified treatment of structurally related grammars. The form grammar provides the BNF equivalent for the syntax. The interpretations of the grammar form are constructed dynamically during the scanning of the input program and map the form grammar into a context-free grammar satisfying the constraints of the given programming language.     

Context-free hypergraph grammars have the same term-generating power as attribute grammars

Context-free hypergraph grammars and attribute grammars generate the same class of term languages. Extending the context-free hypergraph grammar with a context-free grammar and a semantic domain, a syntax-directed translation device is obtained that is equivalent to the attribute grammar.     

格值下推自动机与格值上下文无关文法

引入了格值下推自动机、格值上下文无关文法及它们的语言的概念,证明了格值下推自动机以两种不同方式接受的语言类的等价性,研究了格值Chomsky范式文法、格值上下文无关文法及其派生所产生的语言的等价条件,揭示了在一定条件下,格值下推自动机接受的语言类与格值上下文无关文法产生的语言类的等价性,证明了有理格值语言均被格值下推自动机识别。     

Approximation of fuzzy context-free grammars

Fuzzy context-free max- grammar (or FCFG, for short), as a straightforward extension of context-free grammar, has been introduced to express uncertainty, imprecision, and vagueness in natural language fragments. Li recently proposed the approximation of fuzzy finite automata, which may effectively deal with the practical problems of fuzziness, impreciseness and vagueness. In this paper, we further develop the approximation of fuzzy context-free grammars. In particular, we show that a fuzzy context-free grammar under max- compositional inference can be approximated by some fuzzy context-free grammar under max-min compositional inference with any given accuracy. In addition, some related properties of fuzzy context-free grammars and fuzzy languages generated by them are studied. Finally, the sensitivity of fuzzy context-free grammars is also discussed.     

Büchi context-free languages

We define context-free grammars with Büchi acceptance condition generating languages of countable words. We establish several closure properties and decidability results for the class of Büchi context-free languages generated by these grammars. We also define context-free grammars with Müller acceptance condition and show that there is a language generated by a grammar with Müller acceptance condition which is not a Büchi context-free language.     

Context-free like restrictions on selective rewriting

Selective substitution grammars based on ‘context-free’ productions form a possible framework for the study of ‘grammatically oriented’ formal language theory. Such grammars (with no control governing the composition of derivation steps) are studied in this paper. In particular we study the effect of various conditions on selectors (which define the way that rewriting is performed); those conditions are aimed to formalize the notion of ‘using information about the context’ during the rewriting process. Each of them captures a particular feature of a rewriting according to a context-free grammar or an EOS system (essentially a context-free grammar that can also rewrite terminal symbols). Some of those conditions yield characterizations of the class of context-free languages for other conditions the lower and upper bound on the language generating power are given. Also a natural notion of a class of ‘simple’ rewriting systems is introduced (pattern grammars) and it is demonstrated that they possess surprisingly high language generating power.     

The language intersection problem for non-recursive context-free grammars

We prove that, given as input two context-free grammars, deciding non-emptiness of intersection of the two generated languages is PSPACE-complete if at least one grammar is non-recursive. The problem remains PSPACE-complete when both grammars are non-recursive and deterministic. Also investigated are generalizations of the problem to several context-free grammars, of which a certain number are non-recursive.     

Controlled bidirectional grammars

We investigate context-free grammars the rules of which can be used in a productive and in a reductive fashion, while the application of these rules is controlled by a regular language. We distinguish several modes of derivation for this kind of grammar. The resulting language families (properly) extend the family of context-free languages. We establish some closure properties of these language families and some grammatical transformations which yield a few normal forms for this type of grammar. Finally, we consider some special cases (viz. the context-free grammar is linear or left-linear), and generalizations, in particular, the use of arbitrary rather than regular control languages.     

Generalised Stream X-Machines and Cooperating Distributed Grammar Systems

Stream X-machines are a general and powerful computational model. By coupling the control structure of a stream X-machine with a set of formal grammars a new machine called a generalised stream X-machine with underlying distributed grammars, acting as a translator, is obtained. By introducing this new mechanism a hierarchy of computational models is provided. If the grammars are of a particular class, say regular or context-free, then finite sets are translated into finite sets, when ?k, = k derivation strategies are used, and regular or context-free sets, respectively, are obtained for ?k, * and terminal derivation strategies. In both cases, regular or context-free grammars, the regular sets are translated into non-context-free languages. Moreover, any language accepted by a Turing machine may be written as a translation of a regular set performed by a generalised stream X-machine with underlying distributed grammars based on context-free rules, under = k derivation strategy. On the other hand the languages generated by some classes of cooperating distributed grammar systems may be obtained as images of regular sets through some X-machines with underlying distributed grammars. Other relations of the families of languages computed by generalised stream X-machines with the families of languages generated by cooperating distributed grammar systems are established. At the end, an example dealing with the specification of a scanner system illustrates the use of the introduced mechanism as a formal specification model. Received September 1999 / Accepted in revised form October 2000     

An LR parsing technique for extended context-free grammars

Extended context-free grammars allow regular expressions to appear in productions right hand sides, and are a clear and natural way to describe the syntax of programming languages.In this paper an LR parsing technique for extended context-free grammars is presented, which is based on an underlying transformation of the grammar into an equivalent context-free one.The technique is suitable for inclusion in one-pass compilers: the implementation requires little extensions to the algorithms working for normal LR grammars. Besides describing the parsing method, the paper shows also the algorithms for deriving the parsing tables; tables optimization is also discussed. Finally, this technique is compared with other proposals appeared in the literature.     

The Equivalence of Tree Adjoining Grammars and Monadic Linear Context-free Tree Grammars

The equivalence of leaf languages of tree adjoining grammars and monadic linear context-free grammars was shown about a decade ago. This paper presents a proof of the strong equivalence of these grammar formalisms. Non-strict tree adjoining grammars and monadic linear context-free grammars define the same class of tree languages. We also present a logical characterisation of this tree language class showing that a tree language is a member of this class iff it is the two-dimensional yield of an MSO-definable three-dimensional tree language.     

The covering problem for linear context-free grammars

Language equivalence, grammatical covering and structural equivalence are all notions of similarity defined on context-free grammars. We show that the problem of determining whether an arbitrary linear context-free grammar covers another is complete for the class of languages accepted by polynomially space bounded Turing machines. We then compare the complexity of this problem with the analogous problems for language equivalence and structural equivalence, not only for linear grammars, but also for regular grammars and unrestricted context-free grammars. As a step in obtaining the main result of this paper, we show that the equivalence problem for linear s-grammars is decidable in polynomial time.     

一种特殊的上下文无关文法及其语法分析

SAQ系统是一个进行软件规约获取、检验和复用的实验系统，其中以上下文无关文法表示的概念是规约的一部分.SAQ要求将概念的词法和句法定义结合在一个上下文无关文法中.如果用常规的上下文无关文法描述诸如程序设计语言和自然语言等一些复杂概念的语法，则需要把诸如空格和回车等没有实质意义的分隔符包含到语法中去(这种描述方法称为朴素表示法),使得语法描述很累赘.为此，作者设计了一种特殊的上下文无关文法,它把通常上下文无关文法定义中的非终极符集合和终极符集合进行细化.用这种文法可以相对简洁地描述程序语言和自然语言等复杂概     

Left-forbidding cooperating distributed grammar systems

A left-forbidding grammar, introduced in this paper, is a context-free grammar, where a set of nonterminal symbols is attached to each context-free production. Such a production can rewrite a nonterminal provided that no symbol from the attached set occurs to the left of the rewritten nonterminal in the current sentential form. The present paper discusses cooperating distributed grammar systems with left-forbidding grammars as components and gives some new characterizations of language families of the Chomsky hierarchy. In addition, it also proves that twelve nonterminals are enough for cooperating distributed grammar systems working in the terminal derivation mode with two left-forbidding components (including erasing productions) to characterize the family of recursively enumerable languages.     

Analyzing ambiguity of context-free grammars

It has been known since 1962 that the ambiguity problem for context-free grammars is undecidable. Ambiguity in context-free grammars is a recurring problem in language design and parser generation, as well as in applications where grammars are used as models of real-world physical structures.We observe that there is a simple linguistic characterization of the grammar ambiguity problem, and we show how to exploit this by presenting an ambiguity analysis framework based on conservative language approximations. As a concrete example, we propose a technique based on local regular approximations and grammar unfoldings. We evaluate the analysis using grammars that occur in RNA analysis in bioinformatics, and we demonstrate that it is sufficiently precise and efficient to be practically useful.     

One application of real-valued interpretation of formal power series

We define two natural properties of context-free grammars. The first property generalizes linearity and the second property strengthens nonlinearity. A language generated by an unambiguous grammar of the first type is called the language with weak linear structure and a language generated by an unambiguous grammar of the second type is called the language with strong nonlinear structure. Our main theorem states that the family of unambiguous grammars generating languages with weak linear structure and the family of unambiguous grammars generating languages with strong nonlinear structure are effectively separable.     

Context-free languages over infinite alphabets

In this paper we introduce context-free grammars and pushdown automata over infinite alphabets. It is shown that a language is generated by a context-free grammar over an infinite alphabet if and only if it is accepted by a pushdown automaton over an infinite alphabet. Also the generated (accepted) languages possess many of the properties of the ordinary context-free languages: decidability, closure properties, etc.. This provides a substantial evidence for considering context-free grammars and pushdown automata over infinite alphabets as a natural extension of the classical ones. Received November 27, 1995 / March 4, 1997