Chapter 3: Describing Syntax

and Semantics

Week 2 Lecture 1 (1/8)

Objectives
3.1 Introduction

3.2 The General Problem of Describing Syntax

3.3 Formal Methods of Describing Syntax

3.3.1 Backus-Naur Form and Context-Free Grammars
3.3.1.1 Context-Free Grammars

3.3.1.2 Origins of Backus-Naur Form

3.3.1.3 Fundamentals

3.3.1.4 Describing Lists

3.3.1.5 Grammars and Derivations

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-2
Languages
Introduction
• Syntax: the form or structure of the expressions, statements,
and program units (Example1: while (boolean_expr) statement)

• Semantics: the meaning of the expressions, statements, and

program units
– The semantics of Example1 is: when boolean_expr is true, statement is
executed. If boolean_expr is false, control transfers to the statement following
the while construct.)

• Syntax and semantics provide a language’s definition

– Users of a language definition

• Other language designers

• Implementers

• Programmers (the users of the language)

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-3
Languages
The General Problem of Describing
Syntax (1/3)
• A metalanguage is a language used to describe another
language. (Example: English used to describe Java)

• A sentence is a string of characters over some alphabet

• A language is a set of sentences

– a language is specified by a set of rules

• A lexeme is the lowest level syntactic unit of a language

(e.g., *, sum, begin)

• A token is a category of lexemes (e.g., identifier)

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-4
Languages
The General Problem of Describing
Syntax (2/3)
Consider the following Java statement:

index = 2 * count + 17;

Lexeme Token
index identifier
= equal_sign
2 int_literal
* mult_operator
count identifier
+ plus_operator
17 int_literal
; semicolon
CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming
1-5
Languages
The General Problem of Describing
Syntax (3/3)
• Recognizers
– Read a string and decide whether it follows the rules for the
language
– Example: syntax analysis part of a compiler (Chapter 4) (Not
included in the course)

• Generators
– A device that generates sentences of a language (BNF)
(Chapter 3)
– More useful for specifying the language than for checking a
string

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-6
Languages
Formal Methods of Describing
Syntax
• Backus-Naur Form (BNF) and Context-Free Grammars
– Most widely known method for describing programming
language syntax

– Developed as part of the process for specifying ALGOL

– Define a class of languages called context-free languages

– BNF is a metalanguage for programming languages.

• Extended BNF (Not included)

– Improves readability and writability of BNF

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-7
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (1/9)
• Context-Free Grammars
– Chomsky described four classes of grammars

Type Characteristics
0 Unrestricted
1 Context-sensitive
2 Context-free
3 Regular

– Types 2 and 3 are useful for programming language specifications

• Origins of Backus-Naur Form

– Backus developed notation for programming language specifications
syntax (ALGOL58).

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-8
Languages
 Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (2/9)
• Fundamentals (1/2)
– Abstractions are used to describe syntactic structures
• Example: A Java assignment statement might be represented by the abstraction <assign>

• The actual definition of <assign> can be given by <assign> → <var> = <expression>

– Terminals used are Lexemes and Tokens

– Example 1 of BNF rule (or production):

<assign> → <var> = <expression>
example: total = subtotal1 + subtotal2

– Example 2 of BNF rules:

<if_stmt> → if (<logic_expr>) <stmt>
<if_stmt> → if (<logic_expr>) <stmt> else <stmt>

<stmt>  <single_stmt>
| begin <stmt_list> end
CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming
1-9
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-Free
Grammars (3/9)
• Fundamentals (2/2)
– A rule has a left-hand side (LHS) and a right-hand side (RHS),
and consists of terminal and nonterminal symbols

– In a context-free grammar, there can only be one symbol on

the LHS

– A grammar is a finite nonempty set of rules

– An abstraction (or nonterminal symbol) can have more than

one RHS usually separated by the symbol “|” (logical OR)

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-10
Languages
 Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (4/9)
• Describing Lists
– A list of identifiers appearing on a data declaration statement.
– Syntactic lists are described using recursion:
<ident_list> → identifier
| identifier, <ident_list>

<ident_list> → <ident>
| <ident>, <ident_list>

<arg_list> → <expr>
Example:
| <expr>, <arg_list>
<digit> 0|1|2|3|4
<param_list> → <param> |5|6|7|8|9
| param, <param_list>
<integer>  <digit>
<stmt_list> → <stmt> | <digit> <integer>
| <stmt>; <stmt_list>
CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming
1-11
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (5/9)
• Grammars and Derivations (1/5)
– A Grammar for a Small Language

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-12
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (6/9)
• Grammars and Derivations (2/5)
– A Derivative of a program in this language:

begin A = B + C; B = C end

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-13
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (7/9)
• Grammars and Derivations (3/5)
– A derivation is a repeated application of rules, starting with the
start symbol and ending with a sentence (all terminal symbols)

– Every string of symbols in the derivation is a sentential form

– A sentence is a sentential form that has only terminal symbols

– A leftmost derivation is one in which the leftmost nonterminal in

each sentential form is the one that is expanded

– A derivation may be neither leftmost nor rightmost

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-14
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (8/9)
• Grammars and Derivations (4/5)
– A Grammar for a Simple Assignment Statements

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-15
Languages
Backus-Naur Form and Context-
Free Grammars (9/9)
• Grammars and Derivations (5/5)
– A Derivative of a program in this language: A = B * (A + C)

CSCI351 - Concepts of Programming

1-16
Languages