University
of Washington • CSE583 • D. Notkin © 2000
79
Normal form
lA lambda expression has reached
normal form if no
reduction other than renaming variables can be applied
–Not all expressions have such a normal form
lThe normal form is in some sense the
value of the computation
defined by the function
–One Church-Rosser theorem in essence states that for the lambda calculus the
normal form (if any)
is unique for an expression