--- a/truffle/com.oracle.truffle.api/src/com/oracle/truffle/api/nodes/Node.java	Tue Jul 28 18:33:42 2015 +0200
+++ b/truffle/com.oracle.truffle.api/src/com/oracle/truffle/api/nodes/Node.java	Tue Jul 28 17:28:29 2015 -0700
@@ -146,6 +146,33 @@
     }
 
     /**
+     * Handles the discovery of the {@link SyntaxNode} that this node is derived from.
+     */
+    public SyntaxNode asSyntaxNode() {
+        if (this instanceof SyntaxNode) {
+            return (SyntaxNode) this;
+        } else {
+            return getSyntaxNode();
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Locates the {@link SyntaxNode} with which this node is associated/derived. Many nodes
+     * organize themselves in such a way that the relevant {@link SyntaxNode} can be found by
+     * following the parent chain, which is therefore the default implementation.
+     */
+    protected SyntaxNode getSyntaxNode() {
+        Node current = this;
+        while (current != null) {
+            if (current instanceof SyntaxNode) {
+                return (SyntaxNode) current;
+            }
+            current = current.getParent();
+        }
+        throw new IllegalStateException("no SyntaxNode found");
+    }
+
+    /**
      * Method that updates the link to the parent in the array of specified new child nodes to this
      * node.
      *

--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/truffle/com.oracle.truffle.api/src/com/oracle/truffle/api/nodes/SyntaxNode.java	Tue Jul 28 17:28:29 2015 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2015, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
+ *
+ * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+ * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
+ * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
+ * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
+ * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
+ *
+ * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
+ * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
+ * accompanied this code).
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
+ * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+ * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
+ *
+ * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
+ * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
+ * questions.
+ */
+package com.oracle.truffle.api.nodes;
+
+/**
+ * An tagging interface that identifies an AST node as being part of the syntactic structure of the
+ * (original) AST. There are some useful {@code default} methods that could be added once Truffle
+ * moves to 1.8.
+ */
+public interface SyntaxNode {
+}