In formal language theory, a context-free grammar (CFG) is a formal grammar in which every production rule is of the form
- V → w
where V is a single nonterminal symbol, and w is a string of terminals and/or nonterminals (w can be empty).
The languages generated by context-free grammars are known as the context-free languages.
A formal grammar is considered "context free" when its production rules can be applied regardless of the context of a nonterminal.
Context-free grammars are important in linguistics for describing the structure of sentences and words in natural language, and in computer science for describing the structure of programming languages and other formal languages.
In linguistics, some authors use the term phrase structure grammar to refer to context-free grammars, whereby phrase structure grammars are distinct from dependency grammars. In computer science, a popular notation for context-free grammars is Backus–Naur Form, or BNF.
Read more about Context-free Grammar: Background, Formal Definitions, Normal Forms, Undecidable Problems, Extensions, Subclasses, Linguistic Applications
Famous quotes containing the word grammar:
“I demand that my books be judged with utmost severity, by knowledgeable people who know the rules of grammar and of logic, and who will seek beneath the footsteps of my commas the lice of my thought in the head of my style.”
—Louis Aragon (1897–1982)