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On the Disambiguation of Weighted Automata
We present a disambiguation algorithm for weighted automata. The algorithm
admits two main stages: a pre-disambiguation stage followed by a transition
removal stage. We give a detailed description of the algorithm and the proof of
its correctness. The algorithm is not applicable to all weighted automata but
we prove sufficient conditions for its applicability in the case of the
tropical semiring by introducing the *weak twins property*. In particular, the
algorithm can be used with all acyclic weighted automata, relevant to
applications. While disambiguation can sometimes be achieved using
determinization, our disambiguation algorithm in some cases can return a result
that is exponentially smaller than any equivalent deterministic automaton. We
also present some empirical evidence of the space benefits of disambiguation
over determinization in speech recognition and machine translation
applications
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