Chomsky normal form

A → BC, or

A → a, or

S → ε,

where A, B, and C are nonterminal symbols, the letter a is a terminal symbol (a symbol that represents a constant value), S is the start symbol, and ε denotes the empty string. Also, neither B nor C may be the start symbol, and the third production rule can only appear if ε is in L(G), the language produced by the context-free grammar G.

Every grammar in Chomsky normal form is context-free, and conversely, every context-free grammar can be transformed into an equivalent one which is in Chomsky normal form and has a size no larger than the square of the original grammar's size.

Converting a grammar to Chomsky normal form

To convert a grammar to Chomsky normal form, a sequence of simple transformations is applied in a certain order; this is described in most textbooks on automata theory. The presentation here follows Hopcroft, Ullman (1979), but is adapted to use the transformation names from Lange, Leiß (2009). Each of the following transformations establishes one of the properties required for Chomsky normal form.

START: Eliminate the start symbol from right-hand sides

Introduce a new start symbol S₀, and a new rule

S₀ → S,

where S is the previous start symbol. This does not change the grammar's produced language, and S₀ will not occur on any rule's right-hand side.

TERM: Eliminate rules with nonsolitary terminals

To eliminate each rule

A → X₁ ... a ... X_n

with a terminal symbol a being not the only symbol on the right-hand side, introduce, for every such terminal, a new nonterminal symbol N_a, and a new rule

N_a → a.

Change every rule

A → X₁ ... a ... X_n

to

A → X₁ ... N_a ... X_n.

If several terminal symbols occur on the right-hand side, simultaneously replace each of them by its associated nonterminal symbol. This does not change the grammar's produced language.

BIN: Eliminate right-hand sides with more than 2 nonterminals

Replace each rule

A → X₁ X₂ ... X_n

with more than 2 nonterminals X₁,...,X_n by rules

A → X₁ A₁,

A₁ → X₂ A₂,

... ,

A_n-2 → X_n-1 X_n,

where A_i are new nonterminal symbols. Again, this does not change the grammar's produced language.

DEL: Eliminate ε-rules

An ε-rule is a rule of the form

A → ε,

where A is not S₀, the grammar's start symbol.

To eliminate all rules of this form, first determine the set of all nonterminals that derive ε. Hopcroft and Ullman (1979) call such nonterminals nullable, and compute them as follows:

• If a rule A → ε exists, then A is nullable.
• If a rule A → X₁ ... X_n exists, and every single X_i is nullable, then A is nullable, too.

Obtain an intermediate grammar by replacing each rule

A → X₁ ... X_n

by all versions with some nullable X_i omitted. By deleting in this grammar each ε-rule, unless its left-hand side is the start symbol, the transformed grammar is obtained.

For example, in the following grammar, with start symbol S₀,

S₀ → AbB | C

B → AA | AC

C → b | c

A → a | ε

the nonterminal A, and hence also B, is nullable, while neither C nor S₀ is. Hence the following intermediate grammar is obtained:

S₀ → AbB | AbB | AbB | AbB | C

B → AA | AA | AA | AεA | AC | AC

C → b | c

A → a | ε

In this grammar, all ε-rules have been "inlined at the call site". In the next step, they can hence be deleted, yielding the grammar:

S₀ → AbB | Ab | bB | b | C

B → AA | A | AC | C

C → b | c

A → a

This grammar produces the same language as the original example grammar, viz. {ab,aba,abaa,abab,abac,abb,abc,b,ba,baa,bab,bac,bb,bc,c}, but has no ε-rules.

UNIT: Eliminate unit rules

A unit rule is a rule of the form

A → B,

where A, B are nonterminal symbols. To remove it, for each rule

B → X₁ ... X_n,

where X₁ ... X_n is a string of nonterminals and terminals, add rule

A → X₁ ... X_n

unless this is a unit rule which has already been (or is being) removed. The skipping of nonterminal symbol B in the resulting grammar is possible due to B being a member of the unit closure of nonterminal symbol A.

Order of transformations

When choosing the order in which the above transformations are to be applied, it has to be considered that some transformations may destroy the result achieved by other ones. For example, START will re-introduce a unit rule if it is applied after UNIT. The table shows which orderings are admitted.

Moreover, the worst-case bloat in grammar size depends on the transformation order. Using |G| to denote the size of the original grammar G, the size blow-up in the worst case may range from |G|² to 2^{2 |G|}, depending on the transformation algorithm used. The blow-up in grammar size depends on the order between DEL and BIN. It may be exponential when DEL is done first, but is linear otherwise. UNIT can incur a quadratic blow-up in the size of the grammar. The orderings START,TERM,BIN,DEL,UNIT and START,BIN,DEL,UNIT,TERM lead to the least (i.e. quadratic) blow-up.