Solutions of equations in languages

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Abstract

A context-free grammar corresponds to a system of equations in languages. The language generated by the grammar is the smallest solution of the system. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for an arbitrary solution to be the smallest one. We revive an old criterion to decide that a grammar has a unique solution. All this fits in an approach to search for a grammar for an arbitrary language that is given by other means. The approach is illustrated by the derivation of a grammar for a certain set of bit strings. The approach is used to give an elegant derivation of the grammar for a language accepted by a pushdown automaton.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)537-545
Number of pages9
JournalFormal Aspects of Computing
Volume22
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept-2010

Keywords

  • Unguarded recursion
  • Pushdown automaton
  • Context-free
  • Grammar
  • Language

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