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Fast Context-Free Parsing Requires Fast Boolean Matrix Multiplication

Lillian Lee
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Abstract

Valiant showed that Boolean matrix multiplication (BMM) can be used for CFG parsing. We prove a dual result: CFG parsers running in time $O(|G||w|^{3 - \myeps})$ on a grammar $G$ and a string $w$ can be used to multiply $m \times m$ Boolean matrices in time $O(m^{3 - \myeps/3})$. In the process we also provide a formal definition of parsing motivated by an informal notion due to Lang. Our result establishes one of the first limitations on general CFG parsing: a fast, practical CFG parser would yield a fast, practical BMM algorithm, which is not believed to exist.

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Lillian Lee. 1997-08-14. Fast Context-Free Parsing Requires Fast Boolean Matrix Multiplication. https://arxiv.org/abs/cmp-lg/9708008

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