Petri net controlled grammars with a bounded number of additional places

A context-free grammar and its derivations can be described by a Petri net, called a context-free Petri net, whose places and transitions correspond to the nonterminals and the production rules of the grammar, respectively, and tokens are separate instances of the nonterminals in a sentential form. Therefore , the control of the derivations in a context-free grammar can be implemented by adding some features to the associated cf Petri net. The addition of new places and new arcs from/to these new places to/from transitions of the net leads grammars controlled by k-Petri nets, i.e., Petri nets with additional k places. In the paper we investigate the generative power and give closure properties of the families of languages generated by such Petri net controlled grammars, in particular, we show that these families form an infinite hierarchy with respect to the numbers of additional places

Theory of ω-languages. II: A study of various models of ω-type generation and recognition

ω-languages are sets consisting of ω-length strings; ω-automata are recognition devicesfor ω-languages. In a previous paper the basic notions of ω-grammars, ω-context-free languages (ω-CFL's), and ω-pushdown automata (ω-PDA's) were first defined and studied. In this paper various modes of ω-type generation are introduced and the effect of certain restrictions on the derivations in ω-grammars is investigated. Several distinct models of recognition in ω-PDA's are considered, giving rise to a hierarchy of subfamilies of the ω-CFL's. The relations among these subfamilies are established and characterizations for each family are derived. Non-leftmost derivations in ω-CFG's are studied and it is shown that leftmost generation in ω-CFG's is strictly more powerful than non-leftmost generation

Three hierarchies of transducers

Composition of top-down tree transducers yields a proper hierarchy of transductions and of output languages. The same is true for ETOL systems (viewed as transducers) and for two-way generalized sequential machines

Hierarchies of hyper-AFLs

For a full semi-AFL K, B(K) is defined as the family of languages generated by all K-extended basic macro grammars, while H(K) B(K) is the smallest full hyper-AFL containing K; a full basic-AFL is a full AFL K such that B(K) = K (hence every full basic-AFL is a full hyper-AFL). For any full semi-AFL K, K is a full basic-AFL if and only if B(K) is substitution closed if and only if H(K) is a full basic-AFL. If K is not a full basic-AFL, then the smallest full basic-AFL containing K is the union of an infinite hierarchy of full hyper-AFLs. If K is a full principal basic-AFL (such as INDEX, the family of indexed languages), then the largest full AFL properly contained in K is a full basic-AFL. There is a full basic-AFL lying properly in between the smallest full basic-AFL and the largest full basic-AFL in INDEX

Splicing systems and the Chomsky hierarchy

In this paper, we prove decidability properties and new results on the position of the family of languages generated by (circular) splicing systems within the Chomsky hierarchy. The two main results of the paper are the following. First, we show that it is decidable, given a circular splicing language and a regular language, whether they are equal. Second, we prove the language generated by an alphabetic splicing system is context-free. Alphabetic splicing systems are a generalization of simple and semi-simple splicin systems already considered in the literature

Tree transducers, L systems, and two-way machines

A relationship between parallel rewriting systems and two-way machines is investigated. Restrictions on the “copying power” of these devices endow them with rich structuring and give insight into the issues of determinism, parallelism, and copying. Among the parallel rewriting systems considered are the top-down tree transducer; the generalized syntax-directed translation scheme and the ETOL system, and among the two-way machines are the tree-walking automaton, the two-way finite-state transducer, and (generalizations of) the one-way checking stack automaton. The. relationship of these devices to macro grammars is also considered. An effort is made .to provide a systematic survey of a number of existing results