Guest guest Posted September 10, 2004 Report Share Posted September 10, 2004 Gerard Huet wrote: >Paa.nini did not just give a formal grammar for Sanskrit syntax, he >invented a >syntactic meta-notation which is of the same power as context-free >grammars. A few >years before Chomsky :-) If you look at the very last rule on the very last chapter of Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle's book, "The Sound Pattern of English" (In my edition, Harper & Row, 1968, its on page 435), you'll see that his very last rule is: A -> A (where A = long a) . I've always wondered whether that was Chomsky's little insider joke and tribute to Panini's Astadhyayi. (Panini's last sutra being " a a ") Best wishes, Harry Harry Spier 371 Brickman Rd. Hurleyville, New York USA 12747 >Gérard Huet <gerard.huet >INDOLOGY >INDOLOGY >CC: Gérard Huet <Gerard.Huet >Re: [Y-Indology] Ashtadyayi and Backus/Naur grammars >Fri, 10 Sep 2004 00:31:46 +0200 > >BNF, or Backus Normal Form, is one standardized way of writing >context-free grammars. >Context-free grammars recognize context-free, or algebraic languages, >the second >level of Chomsky's hierarchy of formal languages (the first level is >regular or rational >languages, recognized by finite-state automata; the third level is >context-sensitive >languages). Context free languages are enough to represent the >recursive structure >of well-parenthesized formulae such as computer programs. They are >sufficient to describe >the syntax of natural languages as well, except for special constructs >like "respectively" >or the so-called hippopotamus sentences in Dutch, for which mildly >context-sensitive >grammars must be used. > >Backus invented BNF for describing the syntax of FORTRAN. Later, it was >recognized that >Naur invented a similar notation, and BNF now means "Backus-Naur form". > >Paa.nini did not just give a formal grammar for Sanskrit syntax, he >invented a >syntactic meta-notation which is of the same power as context-free >grammars. A few >years before Chomsky :-) > >Actually, it has been advocated that BNF should be called >"Panini-Backus form". >See Ingerman P. Z. "Panini-Backus form suggested", Comm. ACM 10:3 >(1967) p. 137. > >GH > > > > > > Links > > > > > _______________ On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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