Parsing Techniques, Dick Grune, Table of Contents

By Xah Lee. Date: 2016-01-14

parsing techniques Dick Grune 2007 — [Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide, 2nd Edition 2007 By Dick Grune, Ceriel J.H Jacobs. At Buy at amazon ]

Book website http://dickgrune.com/Books/PTAPG_2nd_Edition/SampleParsers/

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Parsing as a Craft . . . 2
1.2 The Approach Used 2
1.3 Outline of the Contents . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 The Annotated Bibliography . . . 4

2 Grammars as a Generating Device 5
2.1 Languages as Infinite Sets . . . . . 5
2.1.1 Language . . . 5
2.1.2 Grammars . . 7
2.1.3 Problems with Infinite Sets . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.4 Describing a Language through a Finite Recipe . 12
2.2 Formal Grammars . . 14
2.2.1 The Formalism of Formal Grammars 14
2.2.2 Generating Sentences from a Formal Grammar . 15
2.2.3 The Expressive Power of Formal Grammars . . . . 17
2.3 The Chomsky Hierarchy of Grammars and Languages . . 19
2.3.1 Type 1 Grammars . . . . . . 19
2.3.2 Type 2 Grammars . . . . . . 23
2.3.3 Type 3 Grammars . . . . . . 30
2.3.4 Type 4 Grammars . . . . . . 33
2.3.5 Conclusion . 34
2.4 Actually Generating Sentences from a Grammar . . . . . . . 34
2.4.1 The Phrase-Structure Case . . . . . . . . 34
2.4.2 The CS Case 36
2.4.3 The CF Case 36
2.5 To Shrink or Not To Shrink . . . . 38
2.6 Grammars that Produce the Empty Language . . . . . . .
2.7 The Limitations of CF and FS Grammars . . .
2.7.1 The uvwxy Theorem . .
2.7.2 The uvw Theorem . . . .
2.8 CF and FS Grammars as Transition Graphs .
2.9 Hygiene in Context-Free Grammars . . .
2.9.1 Undefined Non-Terminals . . . . .
2.9.2 Unreachable Non-Terminals . . .
2.9.3 Non-Productive Rules and Non-Terminals . . .
2.9.4 Loops . . . .
2.9.5 Cleaning up a Context-Free Grammar . . . . . . .
2.10 Set Properties of Context-Free and Regular Languages . . .
2.11 The Semantic Connection . . . .
2.11.1 Attribute Grammars . .
2.11.2 Transduction Grammars . . . . . .
2.11.3 Augmented Transition Networks . . .
2.12 A Metaphorical Comparison of Grammar Types . . . . .
2.13 Conclusion . . . . . .

Introduction to Parsing . . . . . . . . . 61
3.1 The Parse Tree . . . . . 61
3.1.1 The Size of a Parse Tree 62
3.1.2 Various Kinds of Ambiguity . . . . . . . 63
3.1.3 Linearization of the Parse Tree . . . . . 65
3.2 Two Ways to Parse a Sentence . . 65
3.2.1 Top-Down Parsing . . . . . 66
3.2.2 Bottom-Up Parsing . . . . . 67
3.2.3 Applicability 68
3.3 Non-Deterministic Automata . . . 69
3.3.1 Constructing the NDA . . 70
3.3.2 Constructing the Control Mechanism 70
3.4 Recognition and Parsing for Type 0 to Type 4 Grammars . . . . . . . . . 71
3.4.1 Time Requirements . . . . 71
3.4.2 Type 0 and Type 1 Grammars . . . . . . 72
3.4.3 Type 2 Grammars . . . . . . 73
3.4.4 Type 3 Grammars . . . . . . 75
3.4.5 Type 4 Grammars . . . . . . 75
3.5 An Overview of Context-Free Parsing Methods . . . . . . . 76
3.5.1 Directionality . . . . . . . . . 76
3.5.2 Search Techniques . . . . . 77
3.5.3 General Directional Methods . . . . . . 78
3.5.4 Linear Methods . . . . . . . . 80
3.5.5 Deterministic Top-Down and Bottom-Up Methods . . . . . . . . 82
3.5.6 Non-Canonical Methods 83
3.5.7 Generalized Linear Methods . . . . . . . 84
3.5.8 Conclusion . 84
3.6 The “Strength” of a Parsing Technique . . . . . 84
3.7 Representations of Parse Trees . 85
3.7.1 Parse Trees in the Producer-Consumer Model . . 86
3.7.2 Parse Trees in the Data Structure Model . . . . . . . 87
3.7.3 Parse Forests 87
3.7.4 Parse-Forest Grammars . 91
3.8 When are we done Parsing? . . . . 93
3.9 Transitive Closure . . 95
3.10 The Relation between Parsing and Boolean Matrix Multiplication . . 97
3.11 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 100

4 General Non-Directional Parsing . 103
4.1 Unger's Parsing Method . . . . . . . 104
4.1.1 Unger's Method without ε-Rules or Loops . . . . . 104
4.1.2 Unger's Method with ε-Rules . . . . . . 107
4.1.3 Getting Parse-Forest Grammars from Unger Parsing . . . . . . . 110
4.2 The CYK Parsing Method . . . . . 112
4.2.1 CYK Recognition with General CF Grammars . . 112
4.2.2 CYK Recognition with a Grammar in Chomsky Normal Form116
4.2.3 Transforming a CF Grammar into Chomsky Normal Form . . 119
4.2.4 The Example Revisited . 122
4.2.5 CYK Parsing with Chomsky Normal Form . . . . . 124
4.2.6 Undoing the Effect of the CNF Transformation . 125
4.2.7 A Short Retrospective of CYK . . . . . 128
4.2.8 Getting Parse-Forest Grammars from CYK Parsing . . . . . . . . 129
4.3 Tabular Parsing . . . . 129
4.3.1 Top-Down Tabular Parsing . . . . . . . . 131
4.3.2 Bottom-Up Tabular Parsing . . . . . . . . 133
4.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 134

5 Regular Grammars and Finite-State Automata . . . . . . . . . 137
5.1 Applications of Regular Grammars . . . . . . . . 137
5.1.1 Regular Languages in CF Parsing . . . 137
5.1.2 Systems with Finite Memory . . . . . . 139
5.1.3 Pattern Searching . . . . . . 141
5.1.4 SGML and XML Validation . . . . . . . 141
5.2 Producing from a Regular Grammar . . . . . . . 141
5.3 Parsing with a Regular Grammar 143
5.3.1 Replacing Sets by States 144
5.3.2 ε-Transitions and Non-Standard Notation . . . . . . 147
5.4 Manipulating Regular Grammars and Regular Expressions . . . . . . . . 148
5.4.1 Regular Grammars from Regular Expressions . . 149
5.4.2 Regular Expressions from Regular Grammars . . 151
5.5 Manipulating Regular Languages . . . . . . . . . 152
5.6 Left-Regular Grammars . . . . .
5.7 Minimizing Finite-State Automata . . . .
5.8 Top-Down Regular Expression Recognition
5.8.1 The Recognizer . . . . . .
5.8.2 Evaluation
5.9 Semantics in FS Systems . . . .
5.10 Fast Text Search Using Finite-State Automata . . . . . . .
5.11 Conclusion . . . . . .

6 General Directional Top-Down Parsing . . . . . . 165
6.1 Imitating Leftmost Derivations . 165
6.2 The Pushdown Automaton . . . . . 167
6.3 Breadth-First Top-Down Parsing 171
6.3.1 An Example 173
6.3.2 A Counterexample: Left Recursion . 173
6.4 Eliminating Left Recursion . . . . 175
6.5 Depth-First (Backtracking) Parsers . . . . . . . . 176
6.6 Recursive Descent . . 177
6.6.1 A Naive Approach . . . . . 179
6.6.2 Exhaustive Backtracking Recursive Descent . . . . 183
6.6.3 Breadth-First Recursive Descent . . . 185
6.7 Definite Clause Grammars . . . . . 188
6.7.1 Prolog . . . . . 188
6.7.2 The DCG Format . . . . . . 189
6.7.3 Getting Parse Tree Information . . . . . 190
6.7.4 Running Definite Clause Grammar Programs . . . 190
6.8 Cancellation Parsing 192
6.8.1 Cancellation Sets . . . . . . 192
6.8.2 The Transformation Scheme . . . . . . . 193
6.8.3 Cancellation Parsing with ε-Rules . . 196
6.9 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 197

7 General Directional Bottom-Up Parsing . . . . . 199
7.1 Parsing by Searching 201
7.1.1 Depth-First (Backtracking) Parsing . 201
7.1.2 Breadth-First (On-Line) Parsing . . . . 202
7.1.3 A Combined Representation . . . . . . . 203
7.1.4 A Slightly More Realistic Example . 204
7.2 The Earley Parser . . 206
7.2.1 The Basic Earley Parser . 206
7.2.2 The Relation between the Earley and CYK Algorithms . . . . . 212
7.2.3 Handling ε-Rules . . . . . . 214
7.2.4 Exploiting Look-Ahead . 219
7.2.5 Left and Right Recursion 224
7.3 Chart Parsing . . . . . . 226
7.3.1 Inference Rules . . . . . .
7.3.2 A Transitive Closure Algorithm
7.3.3 Completion . . . . . . . . .
7.3.4 Bottom-Up (Actually Left-Corner) . .
7.3.5 The Agenda . . . . . . . . .
7.3.6 Top-Down
7.3.7 Conclusion . . . . . . . . .
7.4 Conclusion . . . . . .

8 Deterministic Top-Down Parsing . 235
8.1 Replacing Search by Table Look-Up . . . . . . 236
8.2 LL(1) Parsing . . . . . . 239
8.2.1 LL(1) Parsing without ε-Rules . . . . . 239
8.2.2 LL(1) Parsing with ε-Rules . . . . . . . . 242
8.2.3 LL(1) versus Strong-LL(1) . . . . . . . . 247
8.2.4 Full LL(1) Parsing . . . . . 248
8.2.5 Solving LL(1) Conflicts . 251
8.2.6 LL(1) and Recursive Descent . . . . . . 253
8.3 Increasing the Power of Deterministic LL Parsing . . . . . 254
8.3.1 LL(k) Grammars . . . . . . . 254
8.3.2 Linear-Approximate LL(k) . . . . . . . . 256
8.3.3 LL-Regular . 257
8.4 Getting a Parse Tree Grammar from LL(1) Parsing . . . . . 258
8.5 Extended LL(1) Grammars . . . . 259
8.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 260

9 Deterministic Bottom-Up Parsing . 263
9.1 Simple Handle-Finding Techniques . . . . . . . 265
9.2 Precedence Parsing . 266
9.2.1 Parenthesis Generators . . 267
9.2.2 Constructing the Operator-Precedence Table . . . 269
9.2.3 Precedence Functions . . . 271
9.2.4 Further Precedence Methods . . . . . . . 272
9.3 Bounded-Right-Context Parsing 275
9.3.1 Bounded-Context Techniques . . . . . . 276
9.3.2 Floyd Productions . . . . . 277
9.4 LR Methods . . . . . . . 278
9.5 LR(0) . . 280
9.5.1 The LR(0) Automaton . . 280
9.5.2 Using the LR(0) Automaton . . . . . . . 283
9.5.3 LR(0) Conflicts . . . . . . . . 286
9.5.4 ε-LR(0) Parsing . . . . . . . 287
9.5.5 Practical LR Parse Table Construction . . . . . . . . . 289
9.6 LR(1) . . 290
9.6.1 LR(1) with ε-Rules . . . . . 295
9.6.2 LR(k ≻ 1) Parsing . . .
9.6.3 Some Properties of LR(k) Parsing . .
LALR(1) . . . . . . . .
9.7.1 Constructing the LALR(1) Parsing Tables . . . .
9.7.2 Identifying LALR(1) Conflicts .
SLR(1) . . . . . . . . .
Conflict Resolvers
Further Developments of LR Methods .
9.10.1 Elimination of Unit Rules . . . . .
9.10.2 Reducing the Stack Activity . . .
9.10.3 Regular Right Part Grammars . .
9.10.4 Incremental Parsing . .
9.10.5 Incremental Parser Generation .
9.10.6 Recursive Ascent . . . .
9.10.7 Regular Expressions of LR Languages . . . . . .
Getting a Parse Tree Grammar from LR Parsing . . . . .
Left and Right Contexts of Parsing Decisions . . . . . . .
9.12.1 The Left Context of a State . . . .
9.12.2 The Right Context of an Item . .
Exploiting the Left and Right Contexts .
9.13.1 Discriminating-Reverse (DR) Parsing . . . . . . .
9.13.2 LR-Regular . . . . . . . . .
9.13.3 LAR(m) Parsing . . . . .
LR(k) as an Ambiguity Test . .
Conclusion . . . . . .

10 Non-Canonical Parsers 343
10.1 Top-Down Non-Canonical Parsing . . . . . . . . 344
10.1.1 Left-Corner Parsing . . . . 344
10.1.2 Deterministic Cancellation Parsing . 353
10.1.3 Partitioned LL . . . . . . . . . 354
10.1.4 Discussion . . 357
10.2 Bottom-Up Non-Canonical Parsing . . . . . . . . 357
10.2.1 Total Precedence . . . . . . . 358
10.2.2 NSLR(1) . . . 359
10.2.3 LR(k,∞) . . . . 364
10.2.4 Partitioned LR . . . . . . . . . 372
10.3 General Non-Canonical Parsing 377
10.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 379
11 Generalized Deterministic Parsers 381
11.1 Generalized LR Parsing . . . . . . . 382
11.1.1 The Basic GLR Parsing Algorithm . . 382
11.1.2 Necessary Optimizations 383
11.1.3 Hidden Left Recursion and Loops . . 387
11.1.4 Extensions and Improvements .
11.2 Generalized LL Parsing . . . . .
11.2.1 Simple Generalized LL Parsing
11.2.2 Generalized LL Parsing with Left-Recursion .
11.2.3 Generalized LL Parsing with ε-Rules
11.2.4 Generalized Cancellation and LC Parsing . . . .
11.3 Conclusion . . . . . .

12 Substring Parsing . . . . 399
12.1 The Suffix Grammar 401
12.2 General (Non-Linear) Methods . 402
12.2.1 A Non-Directional Method . . . . . . . . 403
12.2.2 A Directional Method . . 407
12.3 Linear-Time Methods for LL and LR Grammars . . . . . . . 408
12.3.1 Linear-Time Suffix Parsing for LL(1) Grammars 409
12.3.2 Linear-Time Suffix Parsing for LR(1) Grammars 414
12.3.3 Tabular Methods . . . . . . . 418
12.3.4 Discussion . . 421
12.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 421

13 Parsing as Intersection 425
13.1 The Intersection Algorithm . . . . 426
13.1.1 The Rule Sets Irules , Irough , and I . . . . 427
13.1.2 The Languages of Irules , Irough , and I 429
13.1.3 An Example: Parsing Arithmetic Expressions . . 430
13.2 The Parsing of FSAs 431
13.2.1 Unknown Tokens . . . . . . 431
13.2.2 Substring Parsing by Intersection . . . 431
13.2.3 Filtering . . . . 435
13.3 Time and Space Requirements . . 436
13.4 Reducing the Intermediate Size: Earley's Algorithm on FSAs . . . . . . 437
13.5 Error Handling Using Intersection Parsing . . 439
13.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 441

14 Parallel Parsing . . . . . . 443
14.1 The Reasons for Parallel Parsing 443
14.2 Multiple Serial Parsers . . . . . . . . 444
14.3 Process-Configuration Parsers . . 447
14.3.1 A Parallel Bottom-up GLR Parser . . 448
14.3.2 Some Other Process-Configuration Parsers . . . . . 452
14.4 Connectionist Parsers . . . . . . . . . 453
14.4.1 Boolean Circuits . . . . . . . 453
14.4.2 A CYK Recognizer on a Boolean Circuit . . . . . . 454
14.4.3 Rytter's Algorithm . . . . . 460
14.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 470

15 Non-Chomsky Grammars and Their Parsers . 473
15.1 The Unsuitability of Context-Sensitive Grammars . . . . . 473
15.1.1 Understanding Context-Sensitive Grammars . . . . 474
15.1.2 Parsing with Context-Sensitive Grammars . . . . . 475
15.1.3 Expressing Semantics in Context-Sensitive Grammars . . . . . 475
15.1.4 Error Handling in Context-Sensitive Grammars . 475
15.1.5 Alternatives . 476
15.2 Two-Level Grammars . . . . . . . . . 476
15.2.1 VW Grammars . . . . . . . . 477
15.2.2 Expressing Semantics in a VW Grammar . . . . . . 480
15.2.3 Parsing with VW Grammars . . . . . . . 482
15.2.4 Error Handling in VW Grammars . . 484
15.2.5 Infinite Symbol Sets . . . . 484
15.3 Attribute and Affix Grammars . . 485
15.3.1 Attribute Grammars . . . . 485
15.3.2 Affix Grammars . . . . . . . 488
15.4 Tree-Adjoining Grammars . . . . . 492
15.4.1 Cross-Dependencies . . . . 492
15.4.2 Parsing with TAGs . . . . . 497
15.5 Coupled Grammars . 500
15.5.1 Parsing with Coupled Grammars . . . 501
15.6 Ordered Grammars . 502
15.6.1 Rule Ordering by Control Grammar . 502
15.6.2 Parsing with Rule-Ordered Grammars . . . . . . . . . 503
15.6.3 Marked Ordered Grammars . . . . . . . . 504
15.6.4 Parsing with Marked Ordered Grammars . . . . . . 505
15.7 Recognition Systems 506
15.7.1 Properties of a Recognition System . 507
15.7.2 Implementing a Recognition System 509
15.7.3 Parsing with Recognition Systems . . 512
15.7.4 Expressing Semantics in Recognition Systems . . 512
15.7.5 Error Handling in Recognition Systems . . . . . . . . 513
15.8 Boolean Grammars . 514
15.8.1 Expressing Context Checks in Boolean Grammars . . . . . . . . 514
15.8.2 Parsing with Boolean Grammars . . . 516
15.8.3 §-Calculus . . 516
15.9 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 517

16 Error Handling . . . . . . 521
16.1 Detection versus Recovery versus Correction . . . . . . . . . 521
16.2 Parsing Techniques and Error Detection . . . . 523
16.2.1 Error Detection in Non-Directional Parsing Methods . . . . . . 523
16.2.2 Error Detection in Finite-State Automata . . . . . . 524
16.2.3 Error Detection in General Directional Top-Down Parsers . . 524
16.2.4 Error Detection in General Directional Bottom-Up Parsers . . 524
16.2.5 Error Detection in Deterministic Top-Down Parsers . . . . . . .
16.2.6 Error Detection in Deterministic Bottom-Up Parsers . . . . . . .
Recovering from Errors . . . . .
Global Error Handling . . . . . .
Regional Error Handling . . . .
16.5.1 Backward/Forward Move Error Recovery . . . .
16.5.2 Error Recovery with Bounded-Context Grammars .
Local Error Handling . . . . . . .
16.6.1 Panic Mode . . . . . . . . .
16.6.2 FOLLOW-Set Error Recovery .
16.6.3 Acceptable-Sets Derived from Continuations .
16.6.4 Insertion-Only Error Correction
16.6.5 Locally Least-Cost Error Recovery .
Non-Correcting Error Recovery . . . . . . .
16.7.1 Detection and Recovery . . . . . . .
16.7.2 Locating the Error . . .
Ad Hoc Methods .
16.8.1 Error Productions . . . .
16.8.2 Empty Table Slots . . .
16.8.3 Error Tokens . . . . . . . .
Conclusion . . . . . .

Practical Parser Writing and Usage . . . . . . . . . 545
17.1 A Comparative Survey . . . . . . . . 545
17.1.1 Considerations . . . . . . . . 545
17.1.2 General Parsers . . . . . . . . 546
17.1.3 General Substring Parsers . . . . . . . . . 547
17.1.4 Linear-Time Parsers . . . . 548
17.1.5 Linear-Time Substring Parsers . . . . . 549
17.1.6 Obtaining and Using a Parser Generator . . . . . . . 549
17.2 Parser Construction . 550
17.2.1 Interpretive, Table-Based, and Compiled Parsers 550
17.2.2 Parsing Methods and Implementations . . . . . . . . 551
17.3 A Simple General Context-Free Parser . . . . . 553
17.3.1 Principles of the Parser . 553
17.3.2 The Program 554
17.3.3 Handling Left Recursion 559
17.3.4 Parsing in Polynomial Time . . . . . . . 560
17.4 Programming Language Paradigms . . . . . . . . 563
17.4.1 Imperative and Object-Oriented Programming . . 563
17.4.2 Functional Programming 564
17.4.3 Logic Programming . . . . 567
17.5 Alternative Uses of Parsing . . . . 567
17.5.1 Data Compression . . . . . 567
17.5.2 Machine Code Generation . . . . . . . . . 570
17.5.3 Support of Logic Languages . . . . . . . 573
17.6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . 573

18 Annotated Bibliography . . . . . . . . . 575
18.1 Major Parsing Subjects . . . . . . . . 576
18.1.1 Unrestricted PS and CS Grammars . . 576
18.1.2 General Context-Free Parsing . . . . . . 576
18.1.3 LL Parsing . . 584
18.1.4 LR Parsing . 585
18.1.5 Left-Corner Parsing . . . . 592
18.1.6 Precedence and Bounded-Right-Context Parsing 593
18.1.7 Finite-State Automata . . 596
18.1.8 General Books and Papers on Parsing . . . . . . . . . 599
18.2 Advanced Parsing Subjects . . . . 601
18.2.1 Generalized Deterministic Parsing . . 601
18.2.2 Non-Canonical Parsing . 605
18.2.3 Substring Parsing . . . . . . 609
18.2.4 Parsing as Intersection . . 611
18.2.5 Parallel Parsing Techniques . . . . . . . . 612
18.2.6 Non-Chomsky Systems . 614
18.2.7 Error Handling . . . . . . . . 623
18.2.8 Incremental Parsing . . . . 629
18.3 Parsers and Applications . . . . . . 630
18.3.1 Parser Writing . . . . . . . . . 630
18.3.2 Parser-Generating Systems . . . . . . . . 634
18.3.3 Applications 634
18.3.4 Parsing and Deduction . . 635
18.3.5 Parsing Issues in Natural Language Handling . . . 636
18.4 Support Material . . . 638
18.4.1 Formal Languages . . . . . 638
18.4.2 Approximation Techniques . . . . . . . . 641
18.4.3 Transformations on Grammars . . . . . 641
18.4.4 Miscellaneous Literature 642

A Hints and Solutions to Selected Problems . . . . 645
Author Index . . 651
Subject Index . . 655