Van Wijngaarden Grammars and Metamorphism

Abstract

Grammars are used to describe sentences structure, thanks to some sets of rules, which depends on the grammar type. A classification of grammars has been made by Noam Chomsky, which led to four well-known types. Yet, there are other types of grammars, which do not exactly fit in Chomsky's classification, such as the two-level grammars. As their name suggests it, the main idea behind these grammars is that they are composed of two grammars. Van Wijngaarden grammars, particularly, are such grammars. They are interesting by their power (expressiveness), which can be the same, under some hypotheses, as the most powerful grammars of Chomsky's classification, i.e. Type 0 grammars. Another point of interest is their relative conciseness and readability. Van Wijngaarden grammars can describe static and dynamic semantic of a language. So, by using them as a generative engine, it is possible to generate a possibly infinite set of words, while assuring us that they all have the same semantic.