Chapter 8

Properties of CFL
 8.2: Closure Properties for CFL (1)

 A set is closed under some operation if performing

that operation on members of the set always
produces a member of that set.
 Assume that
 L1, L2 are context-free languages
CFG for L1 is G1 = (NT1 , 1, P1, S1}
CFG for L2 is G2 = (NT2 , 2, P2, S2}
 R is a regular language
 CFLs are closed under the operations of
 Union, concatenation, Kleene closure
 CFLs are not closed under
 Intersection, complementation
 8.2: Closure Properties for CFL (2)
 Union L = L1  L2
 G = ({S}  NT1  NT2, 1  2,
 P1  P2  {S  S1 | S2}, S)

 Concatenation L = L1L2
 G = ({S}  NT1  NT2, 1  2,
 P1  P2  {S  S1S2}, S)

 Closure L = L1*
 G = ({S}  NT1, 1, P1  {S   | S1S}, S)

 Assumes Non-terminl names distinct in NT1 and

NT2. Otherwise, can rename consistently.
 8.2: Closure Properties for CFL (3)

 Intersection L = L1  L2
 L not necessarily context-free.
 CFLs are not closed under intersection!
 Can’t simulate two stacks by one stack.
 L1 = {an bn cm | n, m  0}
 is CFL

 L2 = {an bm cm | n, m  0}
 is CFL

 L = L1  L2 = {ak bk ck | k  0}
 is NOT CFL
 8.2: Closure Properties for CFL (4)

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 Complementation L= L1
 L not necessarily context-free.
 CFLs are not closed under complementation!

 By DeMorgan’s Law,
 since union closed,
 if complementation closed, so is intersection.
(contradiction)

L  L1  L2  L1  L2
 8.2: Closure Properties for CFL (5)
 Intersection with RL L = L1  R
 L is context-free.
 Intuition: Only one stack to simulate, so OK.

 Example: show that L = {anbn : n ≥ 0, n ≠ 100} is context-

free
 L1 = {anbn : n ≥ 0} is context-free

 L2 = {a100b100} is finite, so it is regular

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 L2 is regular (regular languages closed under
complementation)
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 L = L1  L2 is context-free
 8.2: Closure Properties for CFL (6)
 For any context free grammar, we can decide:
 membership (can the grammar generate a given string)

 if it is empty (the grammar does not generate any

strings)

 if it is infinite (the grammar generates and infinite

number of strings)

 However, there is no algorithm for deciding whether two

context-free grammars generate the same language!