In linguistics, a rewrite rule for natural language (phrase structure rule, analog of production rules in formal grammars) in generative grammar is a rule of the form A → X where A is a syntactic category label, such as noun phrase or sentence, and X is a sequence of such labels and/or morphemes, expressing the fact that A can be replaced by X in generating the constituent structure of a sentence.
Example:
S → NP VP
Which means: Sentence consists of Noun Phrase followed by Verb Phrase.
Rewrite rules underlie rewriting systems; there are many different varieties of rewriting systems that are commonly studied.
Read more about Rewrite Rule: See Also
Famous quotes containing the word rule:
“The world is filled with the proverbs and acts and winkings of a base prudence, which is a devotion to matter, as if we possessed no other faculties than the palate, the nose, the touch, the eye and ear; a prudence which adores the Rule of Three, which never subscribes, which never gives, which seldom lends, and asks but one question of any project,—Will it bake bread?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)