Formal language

About: Formal language is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5763 publications have been published within this topic receiving 154114 citations.

An event-condition-action logic programming language

Abstract: Event-Condition-Action (ECA) languages are an intuitive and powerful paradigm for programming reactive systems Usually, important features for an ECA language are reactive and reasoning capabilities, the possibility to express complex actions and events, and a declarative semantics In this paper, we introduce ERA, an ECA language based on, and extending the framework of logic programs updates that, together with these features, also exhibits capabilities to integrate external updates and perform self updates to its knowledge (data and classical rules) and behaviour (reactive rules)

Logic and the Generative Power of Autosegmental Phonology

Abstract: Autosegmental Phonology is studied in the framework of Formal Language Theory, which classifies the computational complexity of patterns. In contrast to previous computational studies of Autosegmental Phonology, which were mainly concerned with finite-state implementations of the formalism, a methodology for a model-theoretic study of autosegmental diagrams with monadic second-order logic is introduced. Monadic second order logic provides a mathematically rigorous way of studying autosegmental formalisms, and its complexity is well understood. The preliminary conclusion is that autosegmental diagrams which conform to the well-formedness constraints defined here likely describe at most regular sets of strings.

Regulated Grammars and Automata

Abstract: This is the first book to offer key theoretical topics and terminology concerning regulated grammars and automata. They are the most important language-defining devices that work under controls represented by additional mathematical mechanisms. Key topics include formal language theory, grammatical regulation, grammar systems, erasing rules, parallelism, word monoids, regulated and unregulated automata and control languages. The book explores how the information utilized in computer science is most often represented by formal languages defined by appropriate formal devices. It provides both algorithms and a variety of real-world applications, allowing readers to understand both theoretical concepts and fundamentals. There is a special focus on applications to scientific fields including biology, linguistics and informatics. This book concludes with case studies and future trends for the field. Regulated Grammars and Automata is designed as a reference for researchers and professionals working in computer science and mathematics who deal with language processors. Advanced-level students in computer science and mathematics will also find this book a valuable resource as a secondary textbook or reference.

The Structure of Paintings: Formal Grammar and Design

Abstract: Although substantial literature exists on the properties of formal grammars, much less has been written on the use of grammars for describing the languages which they are capable of explaining. Thus we see a well-developed theory concerning the expressive (generative) power of different kinds of formal grammars and powerful algorithmic methods (analytical) for the languages defined by these grammars. For natural spoken and written languages, grammars have been used for explaining their structure but for the two-dimensional generalization to designs, pictures, images, and fine arts, which has been known since 1964, almost no use has been made of grammars.The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the powerful dormant tools that can be used in the design arts. Some of the benefits of using these tools for describing existing (natural) design languages are discussed. How such uses may direct us from the more formal design arts into the fine arts is discussed by reporting progress on building a grammar...

Symbol-Relation Grammars

Abstract: A common approach to the formal description of pictorial and visual languages makes use of formal grammars and rewriting mechanisms. The present paper is concerned with the formalism of Symbol?Relation Grammars (SR grammars, for short). Each sentence in an SR language is composed of a set of symbol occurrences representing visual elementary objects, which are related through a set of binary relational items. The main feature of SR grammars is the uniform way they use context-free productions to rewrite symbol occurrences as well as relation items. The clearness and uniformity of the derivation process for SR grammars allow the extension of well-established techniques of syntactic and semantic analysis to the case of SR grammars. The paper provides an accurate analysis of the derivation mechanism and the expressive power of the SR formalism. This is necessary to fully exploit the capabilities of the model. The most meaningful features of SR grammars as well as their generative power are compared with those of well-known graph grammar families. In spite of their structural simplicity, variations of SR grammars have a generative power comparable with that of expressive classes of graph grammars, such as the edNCE and the N-edNCE classes.