Chapter 6

Simplification of CFGs and

Normal Forms
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (1)
A Useful Substitution Rule
 Theorem 6.1:
 This intuitive theorem allows us to simplify grammars.
 Let G = (NT, T, S, P) be a context-free grammar. Suppose
that P contains a production rule of the form
 A → xBz
 Assume that A and B are different NT and that
 B → y1 | y2 | ... | yn is the set of all productions in P
which have B as the left side.

 Let G’ = (NT, T, S, P’) be the grammar in which P’ is

constructed from P by replacing rule
 A → xBz with A → x y1z | xy2z | ... | xynz

 Then L(G’) = L(G)

 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (2)
A Useful Substitution Rule
 Let G be
 S → a | aaS | abBc
 B → abbS | b
 Applying theorem 6.1 results in
 S → a | aaS | ababbSc | abbc
 B → abbS | b

 The rules B → abbS | b, which are still part of the

grammar, no longer serve any purpose.
 Both of these useless rules may be deleted
without effectively changing the grammar.
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (3)
Removing Useless Productions
 A non-terminal A is useful (it occurs in at least one
derivation.) if:
 it is reachable: occurs in a sentential form S * aAb
 it is live: generates a terminal string A * w  T*

 A non-terminal A is useless if:

 A does not occur in any sentential form
 It cannot be reached from start symbol
OR
 A does not generate any string of terminals.
 It cannot derive a terminal string

 A terminal is useful if it occurs in a sentence w  L(G)

 Any production involving a useless symbol is a useless

production.
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (4)
Removing Useless Productions
 To eliminate useless symbols:
 First: Find the set TERM that contains all non-
terminals that derive a terminal string
 A * w, where w  T*
 Non-terminals NOT in TERM are useless, they
cannot contribute to generate strings in L(G)

 Second: Find the set REACH that contains all

non-terminals A  TERM that are reachable
from S
 S * aAb
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (5)
Removing Useless Productions
 Example 1
 G: S → AC | BS | B
A → aA | aF
B → CF | b 
C → cC | D
D → aD | BD | C
E → aA | BSA
F → bB | b 
 L(G) is b+
 B, F  TERM, since both generate terminals
 S  TERM, since S → B and hence S * b
 A  TERM, since A → aF and hence A * ab
 E  TERM, since E → aA and hence E * aab
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (6)
Removing Useless Productions
 C and D do not belong to TERM, so all rules
containing C and D are removed
 The new grammar is
 GT: S → BS | B
A → aA | aF
B→b
E → aA | BSA
F → bB | b
 All non-terminals in GT derive terminal strings
 Now, we must remove the non-terminals that do
not occur in sentential forms of the grammar
 A set REACH is built that contains all non-
terminals  TERM derivable from S
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (7)
Removing Useless Productions
 GT: S → BS | B
A → aA | aF
B→b
E → aA | BSA
F → bB | b

 S  REACH, since it is the start symbol

 B  REACH, since S → SB, and hence B is
derivable from S

 A, E, and F can not be derived from S or B, so

all rules containing A, E and F are removed
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (8)
Removing Useless Productions
 The new grammar is
 GU: S → BS | B
B→b
 L(GU) = b+
 The set of terminals of GU is {b}, a is removed
since it does not occur in any string in the language
of GU

 The order is important:

 Applying Second step (REACH) before First
Step (TERM) may not remove all useless
symbols.
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (9)
Removing Useless Productions
 Home exercise: Remove all useless productions.
 S → AB | CD | ADF | CF | EA
 A → abA | ab
 B → bB | aD | BF | aF
 C → cB | EC | Ab
 D → bB | FFB
 E → bC | AB
 F → abbF | baF | bD | BB
 G → EbE | CE | ba
 Let G = ({S, A, B, C}, {a, b}, S, {S → aS | A | C, A → a,
B → aa, C → aCb}) be a CFG.
 Remove all useless productions
 Final grammar is
 G’ = ({S}, {a}, S, {S → aS | a})
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (10)
Removing e-Productions
 Let G be S → SaB | aB B → bB | e

 A non-terminal symbol that can derive the null

string (e) is called nullable.

 For example, in G above, B is nullable since B →

e

 A grammar without nullable non-terminals is

called non-contracting

 G, above, is not non-contracting, since it has one

nullable non-terminal, which is B.
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (11)
Removing e-Productions
 How to find nullable non-terminals?

 Mark all non-terminals A for which there exists a

production of the form A → e

 Repeat
Mark non-terminal X for which there exists X → b and
all symbols in b have been marked as nullable

 Until no new non-terminal is marked

 Read Theorem 6.3

 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (12)
Removing e-Productions
 The set of nullable non-terminals of the grammar
 S → ACA
A → aAa | B | C
B → bB | b
C → cC | e
 is {S, A, C}
 C is nullable
since C → e and hence C * e
A is nullable
since A → C, and C is nullable
S is nullable
since S → ACA, and A and C are nullable
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (13)
Removing e-Productions
 Find nullable non-terminals.
S → aS | SS | bA
A → BB
B → CC | ab | aAbC
C→e
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (14)
Removing e-Productions

 If e  L(G), we can eliminate all productions A → e

 For every B referring to A:

B→ aAb|… B→ ab|aAb|…
A→ e|… A→ …

 For example, if B → e and A → BABa

 Then after eliminating the rule B → e, new rules for A will
be added
 A → BABa
 A → ABa
 A → BAa
 A → Aa
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (15)
Removing e-Productions

 Let G be
 S → SaB | aB
B → bB | e
 After removing e-productions, the new grammar
will be
 S → SaB | Sa | aB | a
B → bB | b

 The removal of e-productions increases the

number of rules but reduces the length of
derivations.
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (16)
Removing e-Productions
 Let G S → ACA
A → aAa | B | C
B → bB | b
C → cC | e

 The equivalent essentially non-contracting grammar GL is

 GL: S → ACA | CA | AA | AC | A | C | e
A → aAa | aa | B | C
B → bB | b
C → cC | c

 Since S * e in G, the rule S → e is allowed in GL, but all

other e-productions are replaced

 A grammar satisfying these conditions is called essentially

non-contracting (only start symbol is nullable)
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (17)
Removing e-Productions
 Let G be
 S → aS | SS | bA
 A → BB
 B → ab | aAbC | aAb | CC
 C→e

 We eliminate C → e by replacing:
 B → CC into B → CC, B → C, and B → e
 B → aAbC into B → aAbC and B → aAb
 Since C → e is only C production
 only B → e and B → aAb retained.

 The new grammar:

 S → aS | SS | bA
 A → BB
 B → e | ab | aAb
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (18)
Removing e-Productions

 The new grammar:

 S → aS | SS | bA
 A → BB
 B → e | ab | aAb
 We eliminate B → e by replacing
 A → BB into A → BB, A → B, and A → e
 Since there are other B productions, these are all
retained
 The new grammar:
 S → aS | SS | bA
 A → BB | B | e
 B → ab | aAb
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (19)
Removing e-Productions

 The new grammar:

 S → aS | SS | bA
 A → BB | B | e
 B → ab | aAb

 Finally we eliminate A → e by replacing

 B → aAb into B → aAb, B → ab
 S → bA into S → bA | b

 The final CFG is:

 S → aS | SS | bA | b
 A → BB | B
 B → ab | aAb
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (20)
Removing of Unit Rules

 Rules having this form A → B are called unit rules

 Consider the rules

 A → aA | a | B
 B → bB | b | C

 The unit rule A → B indicates that any string

derivable from B is also derivable from A

 The removal of unit rules increases the number of

rules but reduces the length of derivations.
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (21)
Removing of Unit Rules

 To eliminate the unit rule, add A rules that directly

generate the same strings as B
 Add a rule A → u for each B → u and deleting
A → B from the grammar

A → B A → a | ...
B → a | ... B → a | ...

 Read Theorem 6.4

 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (22)
Removing of Unit Rules

 Consider the rules

 A → aA | a | B
 B → bB | b | C

 The new rules after eliminating the unit rule A → B

 A → aA | a | bB | b | C
 B → bB | b | C

 We add new rules to A by replacing B in A with all

its RHS rules
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (23)
Removing of Unit Rules

 GL: S → ACA | CA | AA | AC | A | C | e
A → aAa | aa | B | C
B → bB | b
C → cC | c

 The new equivalent grammar (without unit rules)

 GC: S → ACA | CA | AA | AC |
aAa | aa | bB | b | cC | c | e
A → aAa | aa | bB | b | cC | c
B → bB | b
C → cC | c
 6.1: Methods for Transforming Grammars (24)
Removing of Unit Rules

 Remove unit rules:

 S→T|S+T
 T→F|F*T
 F → a | (S)

 S→T|S+T
 T → a | (S) | F * T
 F → a | (S)

 S → a | (S) | F * T | S + T
 T → a | (S) | F * T
 F → a | (S)
 6.2: Chomsky Normal Form (1)
 The Chomsky normal form places restrictions on
the length and the composition of the right-hand
side of a rule

 Definition 6.4:
 A CFG is in Chomsky normal form if each
production rule has one of the following forms:
 A→a
 A → BC
 S→e
 where B, C  NT

 Read Theorem 6.6

 6.2: Chomsky Normal Form (2)

 Algorithm Step 1

 Make sure that the following are satisfied:

 No e-productions (other than S → e)
 No chain rules
 No useless symbols
 6.2: Chomsky Normal Form (3)

 Algorithm Step 2

 Eliminate terminals from RHS of productions

 For each production A → X1X2…Xm
 where Xi  NT  T

 If m  1, replace each terminal a  RHS of A

 Add (if needed) Ca → a for each a  T, where each Ca is new
non-terminal.
 In production A, replace terminal a with corresponding Ca
 6.2: Chomsky Normal Form (4)

 Algorithm Step 3

 Eliminate productions with long RHS:

 For each production:
 A → B1B2…Bm, m  2, where Bi  NT
 replace with productions
 A → B1D1
 D1 → B2D2
 …
 Dm-2 → Bm-1Bm
 where D1…Dm-2 are new non-terminals.
 6.2: Chomsky Normal Form (5)
1. Original grammar (no chain rules, useless symbols, or e-productions):
SXaY|Yb
XYXaY|a
YSS|aX|b

2. Grammar after eliminating terminals from RHSs:

SXAY|YB Aa
XYXAY|a Bb
YSS|AX|b

3. Grammar after eliminating long RHSs:

SXT|YB TAY Aa
XYF|a FXG Bb
YSS|AX|b GAY

Note: Could simplify by combining redundant variables T and G

 6.2: Chomsky Normal Form (6)

1. Original grammar (no chain rules, useless symbols, or e-productions):

S  aXYZ | a X  aX | a
Y  bcY | bc Z  cZ | c

2. Grammar after eliminating terminals from RHSs:

S  AXYZ | a Aa
X  AX | a Bb
Y  BCY | BC Cc
Z  CZ | c

3. Grammar after eliminating long RHSs:

S  AF | a Aa F XG
X  AX | a Bb G  YZ
Y  BH | BC Cc H  CY
Z  CZ | c

 See Example 6.8

 6.2: Greibach Normal Form (7)
 A context-free grammar is in Greibach Normal Form if
every production is of the form A → aX
 where A  NT, X  NT*, and a  Σ

 Examples:
 G1 = ({S, A}, {a, b}, S, {S → aSA | a, A → aA | b})
 GNF
 G2 = ({S, A}, {a, b}, S, {S → AS | AAS, A → SA | aa})
 not GNF
 This grammar S  AB A  aA | bB | b Bb
is not in GNF
 This grammar S  aAB | bBB | bB
A  aA | bB | b Bb
is in GNF