A formal definition of the syntactic structure of a language (see ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=syntax">syntax), normally given in terms of ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=production rule">production rules which specify the order of constituents and their sub-constituents in a ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=sentence">sentence (a well-formed string in the language). Each rule has a left-hand side symbol naming a syntactic category (e.g. "noun-phrase" for a {natural language} grammar) and a right-hand side which is a sequence of zero or more symbols. Each symbol may be either a ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=terminal symbol">terminal symbol or a non-terminal symbol. A terminal symbol corresponds to one "ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=lexeme">lexeme" - a part of the sentence with no internal syntactic structure (e.g. an identifier or an operator in a computer language). A non-terminal symbol is the left-hand side of some rule. One rule is normally designated as the top-level rule which gives the structure for a whole sentence. A grammar can be used either to parse a sentence (see ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=parser">parser) or to generate one. Parsing assigns a terminal syntactic category to each input token and a non-terminal category to each appropriate group of tokens, up to the level of the whole sentence. Parsing is usually preceded by ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=lexical analysis">lexical analysis. Generation starts from the top-level rule and chooses one alternative production wherever there is a choice. See also ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=BNF">BNF, ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=yacc">yacc, ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&file=search&eid=1&query=attribute grammar">attribute grammar, {grammar analysis}.

In addition suitable contents:
[ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=134">= ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=396">ag ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=433">al ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=531">alt ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=544">am ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=592">an ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=683">app ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=740">ar ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=743">arc ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=800">as ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=894">at ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=931">attribute ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1025">B ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1026">b ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1181">be ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1441">BNF ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1444">bo ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1695">by ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1724">ca ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1863">cat ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1869">category ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=1896">cc ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2001">ch ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2099">ci ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2247">co ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2330">com ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2491">computer ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2517">computer language ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2545">con ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=2606">cons ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3151">de ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3304">design ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3752">du ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3834">E ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3865">ec ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3896">ed ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3929">ee ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=3946">eg ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4148">er ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4150">era ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4171">es ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4497">fi ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4520">file ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4700">fo ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4727">for ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4828">fr ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=4983">G ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5057">ge ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5070">gen ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5089">generate ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5134">gh ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5141">gi ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5205">gn ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5291">gr ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5301">grammar analysis ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5377">group ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5403">gu ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5434">h ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5690">hole ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5768">hr ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5779">ht ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5931">id ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=5956">ie ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6013">il ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6064">in ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6165">input ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6194">int ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6413">io ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6449">ir ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6482">is ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6558">it ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6789">ke ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6792">ken ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6918">la ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=6950">language ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7091">Lex ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7092">lexeme ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7095">lexical analysis ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7399">ls ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7410">lt ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7441">ly ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7463">ma ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=7579">mall ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8019">mm ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8032">mo ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8040">mod ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8079">module ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8167">mp ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8228">ms ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8384">N ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8386">na ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8446">natural language ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8460">nc ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8472">ne ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8627">ng ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8630">ni ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8675">no ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8718">norm ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8745">np ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8760">ns ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8820">O ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=8964">om ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9014">op ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9071">operator ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9204">pa ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9325">parser ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9457">pe ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9550">ph ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=9908">pr ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10012">product ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10253">query ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10364">rc ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10385">re ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10767">ro ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10887">ru ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=10918">S ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11150">se ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11229">sentence ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11376">si ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11389">sig ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11651">so ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11790">spec ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=11934">st ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12093">string ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12109">struct ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12133">su ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12246">sy ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12295">syntax ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12416">tar ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12533">terminal ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12588">th ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12721">to ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12730">token ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12787">tr ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12896">tt ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=12986">ua ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=13146">up ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=13175">us ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=13310">ve ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=14029">yacc ] [ ref="module.php?name=Lexikon&op=content&tid=14102">zero ]