Affix grammar

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.

The formalism was invented in 1962 by Lambert Meertens while developing a grammar for generating English sentences. 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. The string quartet was published in 1968, as Mathematical Centre Report MR 96.

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.

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