# Parse Tree **Domain:** Linguistics / Computing / Formal Grammar **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition A **parse tree** is a branching diagram that shows how a sentence or a line of code breaks down into its parts according to a grammar. The whole expression sits at the root, phrases and clauses form the branches, and individual words or symbols are the leaves. Linguists use parse trees to analyze sentence structure, and programmers meet them in compilers and interpreters, which parse source code into trees before turning it into instructions a machine can run. The same structure therefore links human grammar and programming languages. ## Corpus Context In a June 2016 broadcast, Bryant McGill drew on his work as a programmer, learning language trees, parse trees, lexicons, and vocabularies, to explain how memory and thought are built largely from symbols. The parse tree serves as an image of the mind organizing experience into nested, linked concepts. ## Relationships - **Fields:** [[wiki/Linguistics|Linguistics]] · [[wiki/Computational Linguistics|Computational Linguistics]] · [[wiki/Natural Language Processing|Natural Language Processing]]. - **Representation:** [[wiki/Symbolic Representation|Symbolic Representation]] · [[wiki/Knowledge Representation|Knowledge Representation]]. - **Vocabulary layer:** [[wiki/Lexicon|Lexicon]]. - **Broadcast source:** [[livestreams/Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1 - Livestream|Reclaiming Selfishness, Balance, and the Whole Self, Part 1]], June 1, 2016. - **Corpus project:** [[projects/Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine|Ten Years Building a Symbolic Language Engine]], Bryant McGill's symbolic language engine, built from 1994 into the mid-2000s, with its phonological engine, sound indexes, and lexical knowledge graph. ## See Also [[wiki/Semiotics|Semiotics]] · [[wiki/Symbolic AI|Symbolic AI]]