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Monadic second-order definable text languages

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Abstract

Atext is a word together with a (additional) linear ordering. Each text has a generic tree representation, called itsshape. Texts are considered in a logical and in an algebraic framework. It is proved that, for texts of bounded primitivity, the class of monadic second-order definable text languages coincides with both the class of recognizable text languages and the class of text languages generated by right-linear text grammars. In particular it is demonstrated that the construction of the shape of a text can be formalized in terms of our monadic second-order logic. This approach can be extended to the case of graphs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9512, 2300, RA Leiden, The Netherlands

    H. J. Hoogeboom & P. ten Pas

Authors
  1. H. J. Hoogeboom
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  2. P. ten Pas
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This research was supported by the EBRA Working Group ASMICS 2.

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Hoogeboom, H.J., ten Pas, P. Monadic second-order definable text languages. Theory of Computing Systems 30, 335–354 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02679464

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