Dora Giammarresi

Two-dimensional languages

The aim of this chapter is to generalize concepts and techniques of formal language theory to two dimensions. Informally, a two-dimensional string is called a picture and is defined as a rectangular array of symbols taken from a finite alphabet. A two-dimensional language (or picture language) is a set of pictures.

Recognizable picture languages

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new notion of recognizability for picture (two-dimensional) languages extending the characterization of one-dimensional recognizable languages in terms of local languages and alphabetic mappings. We first introduce the family of local picture languages (denoted by LOC) and, in particular, prove the undecidability of the emptiness problem. Then we define the new family of recognizable picture languages (denoted by REC). We study some combinatorial and language theoretic properties of REC such as ambiguity, closure properties or undecidability results. Finally we compare the family REC with the classical families of languages recognized by four-way automata.

Monadic second-order logic over rectangular pictures and recognizability by tiling systems

Abstract It is shown that a set of pictures (rectangular arrays of symbols) is recognized by a finite tiling system iff it is definable in existential monadic second-order logic. As a consequence, finite tiling systems constitute a notion of recognizability over two-dimensional inputs which at the same time generalizes finite-state recognizability over strings and also matches a natural logic. The proof is based on the Ehrenfeucht–Fraisse technique for first-order logic and an implementation of “threshold counting” within tiling systems.

Unambiguous recognizable two-dimensional languages

We consider the family UREC of unambiguous recognizable two-dimensional languages. We prove that there are recognizable languages that are inherently ambiguous, that is UREC family is a proper subclass of REC family. The result is obtained by showing a necessary condition for unambiguous recognizable languages. Further UREC family coincides with the class of picture languages defined by unambiguous 2OTA and it strictly contains its deterministic counterpart. Some closure and non-closure properties of UREC are presented. Finally we show that it is undecidable whether a given tiling system is unambiguous.

Two-dimensional finite state recognizability

The purpose of this paper is to investigate about a new notion of finite state recognizability for two-dimensional (picture) languages. This notion takes as starting point the characterization of one-dimensional recognizable languages in terms of local languages and projections. Such notion can be extended in a natural way to the two-dimensional case. We first introduce a notion of local picture language and then we define,a recognizable picture language as a projection of a local picture language. The family of recognizable picture languages is denoted by REC. We study some combinatorial and language-theoretic properties of family REC. In particular we prove some closure properties with respect to different kinds of operations. From this, we derive that some natural families of two-dimensional languages (finite languages, regular languages, locally testable languages) are recognizable. Further we give some necessary conditions for recognizability which provides tools to show that certain languages are not recognizable. Although REC shares several properties of recognizable string languages, however, differently from the case of words, we prove here that REC is not closed under complementation and that the emptyness problem is undecidable for this family of languages. Finally, we report some characterizations of family REC by means of machine-based models and logic-based formalisms.

Normal form algorithms for extended context-free grammars

We investigate the complexity of a variety of normal-form transformations for extended context-free grammars, where by extended we mean that the set of right-hand sides for each nonterminal in such a grammar is a regular set. The study is motivated by the implementation project GraMa which will provide a C++ toolkit for the symbolic manipulation of context-free objects just as Grail does for regular objects. Our results generalize known complexity bounds for context-free grammars but do so in nontrivial ways. Specifically, we introduce a new representation scheme for extended context-free grammars (the symbol-threaded expression forest), a new normal form for these grammars (dot normal form) and new regular expression algorithms. Copyright 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.

Deterministic and Unambiguous Families within Recognizable Two-dimensional Languages

Recognizable two-dimensional languages (REC) are defined by tiling systems that generalize to two dimensions non-deterministic finite automata for strings. We introduce the notion of deterministic tiling system and the corresponding family of languages (DREC) and study its structural and closure properties. Furthermore we show that, in contrast with the one-dimensional case, there exist other classes between deterministic and non-deterministic families that we separate by means of examples and decidability properties.

A computational model for tiling recognizable two-dimensional languages

Tiling systems are a well accepted model to define recognizable two-dimensional languages but they are not an effective device for recognition unless a scanning strategy for the pictures is fixed. We define a tiling automaton as a tiling system equipped with a scanning strategy and a suitable data structure. The class of languages accepted by tiling automata coincides with the REC family. In this framework it is possible to define determinism, non-determinism and unambiguity. Then (deterministic) tiling automata are compared with the other known (deterministic) automata models for two-dimensional languages.

Monadic Second-Order Logic Over Pictures and Recognizability by Tiling Systems

We show that a set of pictures (rectangular arrays of symbols) is recognized by a finite tiling system if and only if it is definable in existential monadic second-order logic. As a consequence, finite tiling systems constitute a notion of recognizability over two-dimensional inputs which at the same time generalizes finite-state recognizability over strings and matches a natural logic. The proof is based on the Ehrenfeucht-FraIsse technique for first-order logic and an implementation of “threshold counting” within tiling systems.

A characterization of Thompson digraphs

A finite-state machine is called a Thompson machine if it can be constructed from an empty-free regular expression using the construction of Thompson as modified by Hopcroft and Ullman. We call the underlying digraph of a Thompson machine a Thompson digraph. We characterize Thompson digraphs and we give an algorithm that generates an equivalent regular expression from a Thompson machine that has size linear in the total number of states and transitions. Although the algorithm is simple, it is novel in that the usual constructions of equivalent regular expressions from finite-state machines produce regular expressions that have size exponential in the size of the given machine, in the worst case. The algorithm provides a tentative first step in the construction of small expressions from finite-state machines.