Affix grammar

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An affix grammar is a two-level grammar formalism used to describe the syntax of languages, mainly computer languages, using an approach based on how natural language is typically described.^[1]

The formalism was invented in 1962 by Lambert Meertens while developing a grammar for generating English sentences.^[2] Meertens also applied affix grammars to the description and composition of music, and obtained a special prize from the jury at the 1968 International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Congress in Edinburgh for his computer-generated string quartet, Quartet No. 1 in C major for 2 violins, viola and violoncello, based on the first non-context-free affix grammar.^[3][4] The string quartet was published in 1968, as Mathematical Centre Report MR 96.^[5]

The grammatical rules of an affix grammar are those of a context-free grammar, except that certain parts in the nonterminals (the affixes) are used as arguments. If the same affix occurs multiple times in a rule, its value must agree, i.e. it must be the same everywhere. In some types of affix grammar, more complex relationships between affix values are possible.