Rewrite rule
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, a rewrite rule for natural language
(phrase structure rule, analog of production
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 morpheme
s, 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.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, a rewrite rule for natural language
Natural language
In the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...
(phrase structure rule, analog of production
Production (computer science)
A production or production rule in computer science is a rewrite rule specifying a symbol substitution that can be recursively performed to generate new symbol sequences. A finite set of productions P is the main component in the specification of a formal grammar...
in formal grammars) in generative grammar
Generative grammar
In theoretical linguistics, generative grammar refers to a particular approach to the study of syntax. A generative grammar of a language attempts to give a set of rules that will correctly predict which combinations of words will form grammatical sentences...
is a rule of the form A → X where A is a syntactic category label, such as noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
phrase or sentence, and X is a sequence of such labels and/or morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s, expressing the fact that A can be replaced by X in generating the constituent structure of a sentence.
Example:
S
Sentence (linguistics)
In the field of linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language, and often defined to indicate a grammatical unit consisting of one or more words that generally bear minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it...
→ NP
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
VP
Verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and the dependents of that verb. One can distinguish between two types of VPs, finite VPs and non-finite VPs . While phrase structure grammars acknowledge both, dependency grammars reject the existence of a...
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.