Efficient techniques for parsing with tree automata

Jonas Groschwitz, Alexander Koller, Mark Johnson

Abstract: Parsing for a wide variety of grammar formalisms can be performed by intersecting finite tree automata. However, naive implementations of parsing by intersection are very inefficient. We present techniques that speed up tree-automata-based parsing, to the point that it becomes practically feasible on realistic data when applied to context-free, TAG, and graph parsing. For graph parsing, we obtain the best runtimes in the literature.