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When we set out to provide an analysis of the
syntax of a language, we try to adhere to the
“all and only” criterion. This means that our
analysis must account for all the grammatically
correct phrases and sentences and only those
grammatically correct phrases and sentences in
whatever language we are analyzing. In other
words, if we write rules for the creation of well-
formed structures, we have to check that those
rules, when applied logically, won’t also lead to
ill-formed structures.