ChapterContext-FreeGrammarandLanguages.ppt

5.4 Ambiguity in Grammars and Languages Context free languages provide a convenient notation for recursive description of languages. The original goal of formalizing the structure of natural languages is still elusive, but CFGs are now the universally accepted formalism for definition of (the syntax of) programming languages. Writing parsers has become an almost fully automated process thanks to this theory. Conventions: Example: The language of balanced parentheses is context-free. It is generated by the following grammar: G = ( V={S}, T={(,)}, P={ S→ε, S→SS, S→(S) }, S ) V = {Expression, Term, Factor, Identifier} T = {+, *, (, ), x, y, z, …} P = { Expression → Term Expression → Expression + Term Term → Factor Term → Term * Factor Factor→ Identifer Factor → ( Expression ) Identifier → x Identifier → y Identifier → z Identifier → … } S = Expression Note, however, that the fact L=L(G1) is not totally obvious. We need to prove set inclusion both ways. Example: Consider the grammar G3: S → AS |ε A → 0A1 | A1 | 01 5.2 Parse Tree Formal definition: The Yield , Y(?) of a parse tree ? is the string over V∪T inductively defined as follows: (1) If ? is a leaf, then Y(?) is its label; (2) If ?1, …, ?k are subtrees of ? rooted at the children of the root of ? (in the order from left to right), then Y(?)=Y (?1) … Y(?k); ?Thus, Y(?) is the string obtained by reading the labels of leaves during the left (“inorder”) traversal of ?. 5.4 Ambiguity in Grammars and Languages If a grammar for arithmetic expressions contains productions E→ (E) | E+E | E*E | 1 | 2 | 3 | … , then 1+2*3 has two parse trees. The grammar for balanced parentheses we used at the beginning: S → SS | (S) | ε is also ambiguous. We saw one leftmost derivation for the string (())(). S ? SS ? (S)S ? ((S))S ? (())S ? (())(S) ? (())() Here is another: S ? SS ? SSS ? (S)SS ? ((S))SS ? (())SS ? (())(S)S ? (())()S ? (())() Even if a grammar G for a context-f