This document discusses syntax analysis in compiler design. It begins by explaining that the lexer takes a string of characters as input and produces a string of tokens as output, which is then input to the parser. The parser takes the string of tokens and produces a parse tree of the program. Context-free grammars are introduced as a natural way to describe the recursive structure of programming languages. Derivations and parse trees are discussed as ways to parse strings based on a grammar. Issues like ambiguity and left recursion in grammars are covered, along with techniques like left factoring that can be used to transform grammars.