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Greibach's Theorem
In theoretical computer science, in particular in formal language theory, Greibach's theorem states that certain properties of formal language classes are undecidable. It is named after the computer scientist Sheila Greibach, who first proved it in 1963. Definitions Given a set Σ, often called "alphabet", the (infinite) set of all strings built from members of Σ is denoted by Σ *. A formal language is a subset of Σ*. If ''L''1 and ''L''2 are formal languages, their product ''L''1''L''2 is defined as the set of all concatenations of a string ''w''1 from ''L''1 with a string ''w''2 from ''L''2. If ''L'' is a formal language and ''a'' is a symbol from Σ, their quotient ''L''/''a'' is defined as the set of all strings that can be made members of ''L'' by appending an ''a''. Various approaches are known from formal language theory to denote a formal language by a finite description, such as a formal grammar or a finite-state machine. For example, using an alphabet Σ = , the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theoretical Computer Science
Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Association for Computing Machinery, ACM's ACM SIGACT, Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory (SIGACT) provides the following description: History While logical inference and mathematical proof had existed previously, in 1931 Kurt Gödel proved with his incompleteness theorem that there are fundamental limitations on what statements could be proved or disproved. Information theory was added to the field with a 1948 mathematical theory of communication by Claude Shannon. In the same decade, Donald Hebb introduced a mathematical model of Hebbian learning, learning in the brain. With mounting biological data supporting this hypothesis with some modification, the fields of n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal Grammar
In formal language theory, a grammar (when the context is not given, often called a formal grammar for clarity) describes how to form strings from a language's alphabet that are valid according to the language's syntax. A grammar does not describe the meaning of the strings or what can be done with them in whatever context—only their form. A formal grammar is defined as a set of production rules for such strings in a formal language. Formal language theory, the discipline that studies formal grammars and languages, is a branch of applied mathematics. Its applications are found in theoretical computer science, theoretical linguistics, formal semantics, mathematical logic, and other areas. A formal grammar is a set of rules for rewriting strings, along with a "start symbol" from which rewriting starts. Therefore, a grammar is usually thought of as a language generator. However, it can also sometimes be used as the basis for a "recognizer"—a function in computing that deter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambiguous Grammar
In computer science, an ambiguous grammar is a context-free grammar for which there exists a string that can have more than one leftmost derivation or parse tree, while an unambiguous grammar is a context-free grammar for which every valid string has a unique leftmost derivation or parse tree. Many languages admit both ambiguous and unambiguous grammars, while some languages admit only ambiguous grammars. Any non-empty language admits an ambiguous grammar by taking an unambiguous grammar and introducing a duplicate rule or synonym (the only language without ambiguous grammars is the empty language). A language that only admits ambiguous grammars is called an inherently ambiguous language, and there are inherently ambiguous context-free languages. Deterministic context-free grammars are always unambiguous, and are an important subclass of unambiguous grammars; there are non-deterministic unambiguous grammars, however. For computer programming languages, the reference grammar is ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Context-free Language
In formal language theory, a context-free language (CFL) is a language generated by a context-free grammar (CFG). Context-free languages have many applications in programming languages, in particular, most arithmetic expressions are generated by context-free grammars. Background Context-free grammar Different context-free grammars can generate the same context-free language. Intrinsic properties of the language can be distinguished from extrinsic properties of a particular grammar by comparing multiple grammars that describe the language. Automata The set of all context-free languages is identical to the set of languages accepted by pushdown automata, which makes these languages amenable to parsing. Further, for a given CFG, there is a direct way to produce a pushdown automaton for the grammar (and thereby the corresponding language), though going the other way (producing a grammar given an automaton) is not as direct. Examples An example context-free language is L = \, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Language
In theoretical computer science and formal language theory, a regular language (also called a rational language) is a formal language that can be defined by a regular expression, in the strict sense in theoretical computer science (as opposed to many modern regular expressions engines, which are augmented with features that allow recognition of non-regular languages). Alternatively, a regular language can be defined as a language recognized by a finite automaton. The equivalence of regular expressions and finite automata is known as Kleene's theorem (after American mathematician Stephen Cole Kleene). In the Chomsky hierarchy, regular languages are the languages generated by Type-3 grammars. Formal definition The collection of regular languages over an alphabet Σ is defined recursively as follows: * The empty language Ø is a regular language. * For each ''a'' ∈ Σ (''a'' belongs to Σ), the singleton language is a regular language. * If ''A'' is a regular language, ''A''* ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Context-free Grammar
In formal language theory, a context-free grammar (CFG) is a formal grammar whose production rules are of the form :A\ \to\ \alpha with A a ''single'' nonterminal symbol, and \alpha a string of terminals and/or nonterminals (\alpha can be empty). A formal grammar is "context-free" if its production rules can be applied regardless of the context of a nonterminal. No matter which symbols surround it, the single nonterminal on the left hand side can always be replaced by the right hand side. This is what distinguishes it from a context-sensitive grammar. A formal grammar is essentially a set of production rules that describe all possible strings in a given formal language. Production rules are simple replacements. For example, the first rule in the picture, :\langle\text\rangle \to \langle\text\rangle = \langle\text\rangle ; replaces \langle\text\rangle with \langle\text\rangle = \langle\text\rangle ;. There can be multiple replacement rules for a given nonterminal symbol. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Language
In theoretical computer science and formal language theory, a regular language (also called a rational language) is a formal language that can be defined by a regular expression, in the strict sense in theoretical computer science (as opposed to many modern regular expressions engines, which are augmented with features that allow recognition of non-regular languages). Alternatively, a regular language can be defined as a language recognized by a finite automaton. The equivalence of regular expressions and finite automata is known as Kleene's theorem (after American mathematician Stephen Cole Kleene). In the Chomsky hierarchy, regular languages are the languages generated by Type-3 grammars. Formal definition The collection of regular languages over an alphabet Σ is defined recursively as follows: * The empty language Ø is a regular language. * For each ''a'' ∈ Σ (''a'' belongs to Σ), the singleton language is a regular language. * If ''A'' is a regular language, ''A''* ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Context-free Grammar
In formal language theory, a context-free grammar (CFG) is a formal grammar whose production rules are of the form :A\ \to\ \alpha with A a ''single'' nonterminal symbol, and \alpha a string of terminals and/or nonterminals (\alpha can be empty). A formal grammar is "context-free" if its production rules can be applied regardless of the context of a nonterminal. No matter which symbols surround it, the single nonterminal on the left hand side can always be replaced by the right hand side. This is what distinguishes it from a context-sensitive grammar. A formal grammar is essentially a set of production rules that describe all possible strings in a given formal language. Production rules are simple replacements. For example, the first rule in the picture, :\langle\text\rangle \to \langle\text\rangle = \langle\text\rangle ; replaces \langle\text\rangle with \langle\text\rangle = \langle\text\rangle ;. There can be multiple replacement rules for a given nonterminal symbol. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quotient Of A Formal Language
In mathematics and computer science, the right quotient (or simply quotient) of a language L_1 with respect to language L_2 is the language consisting of strings ''w'' such that ''wx'' is in L_1 for some string ''x'' in Formally: L_1 / L_2 = \ In other words, we take all the strings in L_1 that have a suffix in L_2, and remove this suffix. Similarly, the left quotient of L_1 with respect to L_2 is the language consisting of strings ''w'' such that ''xw'' is in L_1 for some string ''x'' in L_2. Formally: L_2 \backslash L_1 = \ In other words, we take all the strings in L_1 that have a prefix in L_2, and remove this prefix. Note that the operands of \backslash are in reverse order: the first operand is L_2 and L_1 is second. Example Consider L_1 = \ and L_2 = \. Now, if we insert a divider into an element of L_1, the part on the right is in L_2 only if the divider is placed adjacent to a ''b'' (in which case ''i'' ≤ ''n'' and ''j'' = ''n'') or adjacent to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regular Grammar
In theoretical computer science and formal language theory, a regular grammar is a grammar that is ''right-regular'' or ''left-regular''. While their exact definition varies from textbook to textbook, they all require that * all production rules have at most one non-terminal symbol; * that symbol is either always at the end or always at the start of the rule's right-hand side. Every regular grammar describes a regular language. Strictly regular grammars A right-regular grammar (also called right-linear grammar) is a formal grammar (''N'', Σ, ''P'', ''S'') in which all production rules in ''P'' are of one of the following forms: # ''A'' → ''a'' # ''A'' → ''aB'' # ''A'' → ε where ''A'', ''B'', ''S'' ∈ ''N'' are non-terminal symbols, ''a'' ∈ Σ is a terminal symbol, and ε denotes the empty string, i.e. the string of length 0. ''S'' is called the start symbol. In a left-regular grammar, (also called left-linear grammar), all rules obey the forms # ''A'' → ''a'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Formal Language Theory
In logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics, a formal language consists of words whose letters are taken from an alphabet and are well-formed according to a specific set of rules. The alphabet of a formal language consists of symbols, letters, or tokens that concatenate into strings of the language. Each string concatenated from symbols of this alphabet is called a word, and the words that belong to a particular formal language are sometimes called ''well-formed words'' or ''well-formed formulas''. A formal language is often defined by means of a formal grammar such as a regular grammar or context-free grammar, which consists of its formation rules. In computer science, formal languages are used among others as the basis for defining the grammar of programming languages and formalized versions of subsets of natural languages in which the words of the language represent concepts that are associated with particular meanings or semantics. In computational complexity ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finite-state Machine
A finite-state machine (FSM) or finite-state automaton (FSA, plural: ''automata''), finite automaton, or simply a state machine, is a mathematical model of computation. It is an abstract machine that can be in exactly one of a finite number of '' states'' at any given time. The FSM can change from one state to another in response to some inputs; the change from one state to another is called a ''transition''. An FSM is defined by a list of its states, its initial state, and the inputs that trigger each transition. Finite-state machines are of two types— deterministic finite-state machines and non-deterministic finite-state machines. A deterministic finite-state machine can be constructed equivalent to any non-deterministic one. The behavior of state machines can be observed in many devices in modern society that perform a predetermined sequence of actions depending on a sequence of events with which they are presented. Simple examples are vending machines, which dispense p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
