diff --git a/GF.cabal b/GF.cabal
index 023fc4655..864a9005a 100644
--- a/GF.cabal
+++ b/GF.cabal
@@ -588,6 +588,10 @@ library
     GF.Data.Assoc
     GF.Data.ErrM
     GF.Text.UTF8
+-- needed only for the on demand generation of PMCFG
+    GF.Data.BacktrackM
+    GF.Compile.GenerateFCFG
+    GF.Compile.GeneratePMCFG
 
 executable gf
   build-depends: base,
diff --git a/src/PGF.hs b/src/PGF.hs
index d78a55108..17f1d8af8 100644
--- a/src/PGF.hs
+++ b/src/PGF.hs
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ import PGF.Raw.Parse
 import PGF.Raw.Print (printTree)
 import PGF.Parsing.FCFG
 import qualified PGF.Parsing.FCFG.Incremental as Incremental
+import qualified GF.Compile.GeneratePMCFG as PMCFG
 import GF.Text.UTF8
 
 import GF.Data.ErrM
@@ -211,7 +212,14 @@ showLanguage = prCId
 readPGF f = do
   s <- readFile f >>= return . decodeUTF8 -- pgf is in UTF8, internal in unicode
   g <- parseGrammar s
-  return $! toPGF g
+  return $! addParsers $ toPGF g
+
+-- Adds parsers for all concretes that don't have a parser.
+addParsers :: PGF -> PGF
+addParsers pgf = pgf { concretes = Map.map conv (concretes pgf) }
+  where
+    conv cnc | isJust (parser cnc) = cnc
+             | otherwise = cnc { parser = Just (PMCFG.convertConcrete (abstract pgf) cnc) }
 
 linearize pgf lang = concat . take 1 . PGF.Linearize.linearizes pgf lang