Higher-Order Operator Precedence Languages

Floyd's Operator Precedence (OP) languages are a deterministic context-free family having many desirable properties. They are locally and parallely parsable, and languages having a compatible structure are closed under Boolean operations, concatenation and star; they properly include the family of Visibly Pushdown (or Input Driven) languages. OP languages are based on three relations between any two consecutive terminal symbols, which assign syntax structure to words. We extend such relations to k-tuples of consecutive terminal symbols, by using the model of strictly locally testable regular languages of order k at least 3. The new corresponding class of Higher-order Operator Precedence languages (HOP) properly includes the OP languages, and it is still included in the deterministic (also in reverse) context free family. We prove Boolean closure for each subfamily of structurally compatible HOP languages. In each subfamily, the top language is called max-language. We show that such languages are defined by a simple cancellation rule and we prove several properties, in particular that max-languages make an infinite hierarchy ordered by parameter k. HOP languages are a candidate for replacing OP languages in the various applications where they have have been successful though sometimes too restrictive.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2017, arXiv:1708.0622

Contribution of Probabilistic Grammar Inference with K-Testable Language for Knowledge Modeling: Application on aging people

International audienceWe investigate the contribution of unsupervised learning and regular grammatical inference to respectively identify profiles of elderly people and their development over time in order to evaluate care needs (human, financial and physical resources). The proposed approach is based on k-Testable Languages in the Strict Sense Inference algorithm in order to infer a probabilistic automaton from which a Markovian model which has a discrete (finite or countable) state-space has been deduced. In simulating the corresponding Markov chain model, it is possible to obtain information on population ageing. We have verified if our observed system conforms to a unique long term state vector, called the stationary distribution and the steady-state

from regular to strictly locally testable languages

Comment: In Proceedings WORDS 2011, arXiv:1108.341

Grammatical inference of directed acyclic graph languages with polynomial time complexity

[EN] In this paper we study the learning of graph languages. We extend the well-known classes of k-testability and k-testability in the strict sense languages to directed graph languages. We propose a grammatical inference algorithm to learn the class of directed acyclic k- testable in the strict sense graph languages. The algorithm runs in polynomial time and identifies this class of languages from positive data. We study its efficiency under several criteria, and perform a comprehensive experimentation with four datasets to show the validity of the method. Many fields, from pattern recognition to data compression, can take advantage of these results.Gallego, A.; López Rodríguez, D.; Calera-Rubio, J. (2018). Grammatical inference of directed acyclic graph languages with polynomial time complexity. Journal of Computer and System Sciences. 95:19-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcss.2017.12.002S19349

A Logical and Computational Methodology for Exploring Systems of Phonotactic Constraints

We introduce a methodology built around a logical analysis component based on a hierarchy of classes of Subregular constraints characterized by the kinds of features of a string a mechanism must be sensitive to in order to determine whether it satisfies the constraint, and a computational component built around a publicly-available interactive workbench that implements, based on the equivalence between logical formulae and finite-state automata, a theorem prover for these logics (even algorithmically extracting certain classes of constraints), wherein the alternation between these logical and computational analyses can provide useful insight more easily than using either in isolation

An Algebraic Characterization of Total Input Strictly Local Functions

This paper provides an algebraic characteriza- tion of the total input strictly local functions. Simultaneous, noniterative rules of the form A→B/C D, common in phonology, are defin- able as functions in this class whenever CAD represents a finite set of strings. The algebraic characterization highlights a fundamental con- nection between input strictly local functions and the simple class of definite string languages, as well as connections to string functions stud- ied in the computer science literature, the def- inite functions and local functions. No effec- tive decision procedure for the input strictly local maps was previously available, but one arises directly from this characterization. This work also shows that, unlike the full class, a restricted subclass is closed under composition. Additionally, some products are defined which may yield new factorization methods

Beyond operator-precedence grammars and languages

Operator Precedence Languages (OPL) are deterministic context-free and have desirable properties. OPL are parallely parsable, and, when structurally compatible, are closed under Boolean operations, concatenation and star; they include the Input Driven languages. OPL use three relations between two terminal symbols, to assign syntax structure to words. We extend such relations to k-tuples of consecutive symbols, in agreement with strictly locally testable regular languages. For each k, the new corresponding class of Higher-order Operator Precedence languages properly includes the OPL and enjoy many of their properties. OPL are a strict hierarchy based on k, which contains maximal languages