Questions tagged [context-free]
The context-free tag has no usage guidance.
117
questions
2
votes
1answer
135 views
Does a finite, polynomially-bounded CFG translate into a polynomially-bounded DFA?
We are given a family of context-free grammars $\{ G_1, G_2, G_3, ..., G_n, ...\}$ where each $G_n$ generates strings only of length $n$ and obeys other constraints specified below. We want to study ...
6
votes
1answer
176 views
Context Free Grammar For Complement Of { www | ... } with minimal pumping length?
Let $L := \{ w^3 | w \in \{0,1\}\}^C$ be the complement of the language of words that are not the 3rd power of a word over $\Sigma = \{0,1\}$.
Let's define the largest minimal pumping length of a ...
1
vote
0answers
77 views
Take a natural quotient of context-free grammars
Fix a finite alphabet.
Let $\mathrm{CFG}$ be the set of context-free grammars on this alphabet, $\mathrm{CFL}$ the set of context-free languages, $\mathrm{UG}$ the set of unrestricted grammars and $\...
0
votes
1answer
89 views
Reference for context-free grammar for Martin-Löf type theory
Are the terms and the types of Martin-Löf type theory described by context-free grammars? Have such grammars been written down somewhere?
2
votes
0answers
75 views
Necessary and sufficient condition for an infinite tree to be context-free
A Buchi automaton is non-empty iff it accepts an infinite word of the form $uv^\omega$ (here $u,v$ are finite words). In other words, if $\{w\}$ is an $\omega$-regular language, then it is of that ...
5
votes
1answer
129 views
Different definitions of grammar complexity
It's known that there are different "kinds" of grammar complexity of language $L$ --- nonterminal complexity (minimal possible $|N|$ for grammar $(N, \Sigma, P, S)$ generating $L$), covering ...
5
votes
1answer
89 views
Nonterminal descriptional complexity of regular languages
Recently I became interested in grammar complexity of regular language. Prior to searching for literature, I tried to investigate it on my own, proving two lemmas from comment below.
I am aware of an ...
7
votes
0answers
99 views
Deciding whether DCFG is visibly pushdown
Is the following problem decidable?
If so, what's the best algorithm known?
Instance: a deterministic pushdown automaton $A$
Question: Does there exist (i) some partition of the alphabet into push, ...
3
votes
1answer
120 views
Generalizations of Dyck languages?
The "narrowest" generalization of Dyck languages that I am aware of is Visibly Pushdown languages. Are there any useful classes of languages that are intermediate between Dyck languages and ...
3
votes
0answers
77 views
Deciding whether an arbitrary context-free grammar generates a deterministic push-down automata?
I know that it's undecidable whether an arbitrary context-free grammar is ambiguous, but is it decidable whether that grammar is deterministic? I can't find the answer to this question anywhere on the ...
7
votes
1answer
119 views
Lengths of "all-accepted" words in Context Free languages
If $L$ is a Context Free language, it can happen that for some $n$, all words of length $n$ are in $L$. If we consider the
set $A_L$ of such lengths represented in unary, we may guess that such set is ...
10
votes
3answers
759 views
Maximum shortest word accepted by pushdown automata
Given a fixed alphabet, consider all deterministic pushdown automata with $n$ states that accept a nonempty language. What is the maximum length of the shortest word accepted by a deterministic ...
4
votes
1answer
347 views
Are endmarkers necessary for Deterministic Pushdown Automata?
In the book by Kozen (Automata and Computability), the transition function of deterministic pushdown automata (DPDAs) is supposed, in contrast with non-deterministic pushdown automata (NPDAs), to ...
5
votes
1answer
142 views
Are PDAs without ϵ moves and with bounded stack operation as powerful as PDAs with them?
It is known that PDAs without $\epsilon$ moves are as powerful as PDAs with them.
However, it seems to me that the proof allows several stack operations in one move. What happens if we allow at most ...
1
vote
0answers
70 views
Sentences in what kinds of grammar in the Chomsky hierarchy can be parsed by an LSTM of a given size?
Given
an LSTM $N$ of a given size $A$,
a sentence $S$ with a given number of words $B$,
a Chomsky grammar hierarchy level $C$ in 0-3,
a Chomsky grammar $G$ of level $C$ of size $D$,
A given fixed, ...
2
votes
0answers
58 views
A Context-Sensitive Grammar which cannot be recognised by a Parsing Expression Grammar
It is (currently) an open question of whether every context-free grammar can be recognised by some parsing expression grammar. [1]
However, has it been proven that there exists an example of a ...
21
votes
2answers
2k views
Languages that we cannot (dis)prove to be Context-Free
I'm looking for languages which are "probably not Context-Free" but we are not able to (dis)prove it using known standard techniques.
Is there a recent survey on the subject or an open problem ...
3
votes
1answer
140 views
Compressing grammars by introducing ambiguity and left-recursion
This is a reference request. What is known about the following questions?
Problem: Given a grammar $G$ (for example context-free) with language $L$ we can introduce a
new grammar $G'$ which also ...
1
vote
0answers
46 views
Is there an unambiguous grammar that has no left recursion or left factors, but is not in $LL(1)$?
I know that, for a grammar $G$ to belong to $LL(1)$, it is necessary that
$G$ is not ambiguous; that is, every sentence has a unique parse tree in $G$.
$G$ has no left recursion; that is, we can't ...
13
votes
1answer
274 views
Is { ww' | HamDist(w,w')>1 } context-free?
After reading the recent question "Is the complement of $\{ www \mid ...\}$ context-free?"; I remembered a similar problem I wasn't able to disprove:
Is $L = \{ ww' \mid w,w' \in \{0,1\}^* \land |w|...
9
votes
3answers
457 views
Continuous mathematics and formal language theory
Whether there are some results on solving formal languages problems using mathematical analysis, continuous mathematics.
For example, solving the intersection non-emptiness problem for a context-free ...
5
votes
1answer
186 views
For which $R$ is $\{0^a10^b10^c\mid R(a,b,c)\}$ context-free?
Unless I'm mistaken, a language of the form $\{0^a10^b\mid R(a,b)\}$ is context-free if and only if $R$ is a finite union of linear (in)equalities involving integer constants and the variables $a$ and ...
12
votes
3answers
451 views
Is the complement of { www | … } context-free?
It is well-known that the complement of $\{ ww \mid w\in \Sigma^*\}$ is context-free. But what about the complement of $\{ www \mid w\in \Sigma^*\}$?
6
votes
1answer
277 views
Size of complement of context-free language
Let $L$ be a context-free language, $\bar L$ be its complement and $\bar L_n$ be the length $n$ words in $\bar L_n$.
What is known about $|\bar L_n|$?
Note that it is known that $|L_n|$ is either ...
8
votes
0answers
100 views
Does ${\bf CFLPAD}={\bf PPAD}$?
What happens if we define ${\bf PPAD}$ such that instead of a polytime Turing-machine/polysize circuit, a (non-)deterministic finite/push-down automaton encodes the problem?
I asked a similar ...
4
votes
1answer
101 views
What is the current state of the art in black-box grammar induction?
Grammar induction of Context Free Languages seems to be a very well researched field. I would like to know the current state of the art in inducing a Context Free Grammar (I am reading up Higuera's ...
20
votes
1answer
1k views
Number of words of length n in a context-free language
Denote by $w_n$ the number of words of length $n$ in a (possibly ambiguous) context-free language.
What is known about $w_n$?
I'm sure this has been studied a lot, but I couldn't find anything at ...
6
votes
1answer
157 views
Example of context-free tree language which can not be generated by monadic CFTG
Assuming that a context-free tree language (CFTL) is that which is generated by a context-free tree grammar (CFTG), I am looking for an example of CFTL which can not be generated by a monadic CFTG (...
1
vote
0answers
58 views
What is the interpretation of an infinite formal context-free grammar?
Let $L$ be a language as follows:
$$
\begin{align*}
L &::= a\ |\ L^{*}\\
\end{align*}
$$
Now, suppose I apply some sort of transformation $T : N \rightarrow N$ where $N$ is the set of non-...
5
votes
2answers
170 views
Reducing the Height of Context-Free Grammars
Let $G$ be a context free grammar in Chomsky normal form (CNF) with language $L(G)\subseteq \Sigma^n$. In other words, all strings generate by $G$ have size $n$.
Say that a string $w\in L(G)$ has ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
What is the complexity of counting parse trees?
A Counting Problem
Given a CFG $G$ and a string $s$, how many distinct parse trees are there for the string $s$?
An Example Instance
Let's consider an example instance consisting of a CFG $G$ with ...
7
votes
1answer
563 views
Is it known if $\mathrm{CFL} \subseteq\mathrm{ NSPACE}(o(log^2(n)))$?
$\mathrm{CFL}$ is the class of context-free languages.
Question
Is $\mathrm{CFL}$ known to be solvable in $o(log^{2}(n))$ non-deterministic space? What about $\mathrm{DCFL}$?
6
votes
1answer
135 views
Is this generalization of context free grammars known and strict?
Let $\Sigma$ be an finite alphabet and $(N, \circ)$ a semigroup. The semigroup operation on $N$ can be extended to $\mathscr{P}(N)$: $N_1 \circ N_2 := \{ \; n_1 \circ n_2 \; | \; n_1 \in N_1, \; n_2 \...
5
votes
0answers
161 views
"Context" understanding in tree grammars
The Context-Free tree grammar has rules of the form:
$A\rightarrow t$ or $A(x_1,\dots,x_n)\rightarrow t_x$,
where $A\in N$, $t\in T(N\cup T)$, $t_x\in T(N\cup T\cup \{x_1,\dots,x_n\})$, $T(Z)$ ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Show that minimal CFG is undecidable via mapping reduction
Actually the problem below is an exercise in Sipser's textbook (Problem 5.36). However, from my perspective, it is not so trivial so that I post this question on this site instead of CS.SE.
The ...
2
votes
0answers
107 views
Is scalable hardware support for LogCFL (= sAC^1) possible?
The (uniform) circuit classes $TC^0$, $NC^1$ and $sAC^1$ seem to lend themselves to efficient hardware implementation. But using an FPGA approach to create the circuits on the fly seems problematic, ...
2
votes
1answer
227 views
Deformation of finite regular languages [closed]
Let $L \subseteq \{0,1\}^n$ be any finite regular language s.t it has an acyclic DFA.
Let $C$ be some class of acyclic DFAs.
Let $\sigma \in S_n$ be a permutation on $n$ symbols. We can apply $\...
19
votes
1answer
991 views
Is equivalence of unambiguous context-free languages decidable?
It is well known that the equivalence problem is undecidable for general context-free languages. However, all proofs of this fact that I am aware of seem to involve some ambiguous context-free ...
20
votes
0answers
669 views
Why is the Pumping Lemma sometimes called Bar-Hillel's Lemma?
There are several papers in the literature that refer to the Pumping Lemma for context free languages as Bar-Hillel's Lemma (for example, here, here, and on the Wikipedia page). However, the first ...
5
votes
1answer
139 views
Regarding proper form of production rules of Context-free tree grammars
Is it possible to describe Context-free Tree Grammar $G_t$ such that set of yields of its trees will coincide with Context-sensitive word language $a^nb^nc^n$?
$\{a^nb^nc^n | n>0\}=\{Yield(t)|t\...
3
votes
1answer
235 views
Compression algorithms for low-complexity strings?
Let $s$ denote a string over a finite alphabet, $n_s = |s|$ be the length of $s$, and $n_s^{*}$ denote the minimum description size of $s$ under a given computational model (TM, CFG, etc.). Are there ...
13
votes
2answers
1k views
Is SAT a context-free language?
I am considering the language of all satisfiable propositional logic formulae, SAT (to ensure that this has a finite alphabet, we would encode propositional letters in some suitable way [edit: the ...
17
votes
2answers
281 views
A reference for a "more algebraic" approach to pushdown automata and CFLs?
In the Sakarovitch's book on automata theory, it is written in the introduction to the section on rationals in the free group that the material presented therein lays "the foundation of a truly ...
16
votes
1answer
228 views
Characterization of $L$ for which $\{ww : w \in L\}$ is not a CFL?
It is a standard proof in automata courses that for $L = \Sigma^\star$ and $|\Sigma| \ge 2$ that $S(L) = \{ww : w \in L\}$ is not a context-free language.
It is also true that for any finite $L$, $S(...
3
votes
0answers
168 views
Context-Sensitive Grammar characteristic properties
This question can look like some kind of puzzle, but it is actually part of more complex applied problem.
Let's consider subspace of Context-Sensitive Grammars, which contains grammars which can not ...
6
votes
2answers
304 views
Finding smallest context free grammar that generates a set of sets
Are there any results known about the size of smallest context free grammar that generates a set of sets?
That is, I am given an alphabet $\Sigma$ as well as a set $S \subseteq \mathbb{P}(\Sigma)$ ...
6
votes
2answers
263 views
Known and described subclasses of Context-Free Grammars class
I'm looking for various researches which consider specific subclasses of Context-Free Grammar class, i.e. some specific described cases, which differ from well-known:
deterministic/non-deterministic
...
7
votes
0answers
667 views
Does PEG contain CFG?
Despite their considerable expressive power, all PEGs can be parsed in linear time using a tabular or memoizing parser (8). These properties strongly suggest that CFGs and PEGs define incomparable ...
-8
votes
1answer
91 views
In what way are these two context free grammar equal? [closed]
Consider the grammar
G1: A->Aα|β
G2: A->βX
X->αX|ϵ
Its was said that these two grammars are equal.
Should something like left recursion be removed? In what sense are these equal? Am really ...
3
votes
2answers
262 views
Finding a minimal context free grammar that recognizes a finite set of strings of bounded length
Problem:
Given a finite set of strings $\{x_1, x_2, ..., x_n\}$ of length $\ell$ or less from some finite alphabet $\Sigma=\{a_1, a_2, ..., a_k\}$, find the minimal context free grammar that ...
