Related papers: Deciding Whether a Regular Language is Generated b…
In a previous article, we have introduced the problem of local generation of languages, where the communication underlying the generation procedure is captured by a simplicial complex. We study in details this problem for the language of…
The regular languages with a neutral letter expressible in first-order logic with one alternation are characterized. Specifically, it is shown that if an arbitrary $\Sigma_2$ formula defines a regular language with a neutral letter, then…
Compounding is a highly productive word-formation process in some languages that is often problematic for natural language processing applications. In this paper, we investigate whether distributional semantics in the form of word…
Previous work in phonetically-grounded language generation has mainly focused on domains such as lyrics and poetry. In this paper, we present work on the generation of tongue twisters - a form of language that is required to be phonetically…
The separability problem for word languages of a class $\mathcal{C}$ by languages of a class $\mathcal{S}$ asks, for two given languages $I$ and $E$ from $\mathcal{C}$, whether there exists a language $S$ from $\mathcal{S}$ that includes…
Slang is a commonly used type of informal language that poses a daunting challenge to NLP systems. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs), however, have made the problem more approachable. While LLM agents are becoming more widely…
A regular language $L$ is said to be prime, if it is not the product of two non-trivial languages. Martens et al. settled the exact complexity of deciding primality for deterministic finite automata in 2010. For finite languages, Mateescu…
We propose generative models for three types of extra-grammatical word formation phenomena abounding in English slang: Blends, Clippings, and Reduplicatives. Adopting a data-driven approach coupled with linguistic knowledge, we propose…
Riddles based on simple puns can be classified according to the patterns of word, syllable or phrase similarity they depend upon. We have devised a formal model of the semantic and syntactic regularities underlying some of the simpler types…
A common standpoint when designing the syntax of programming languages is that the grammar definition has to be unambiguous. However, requiring up front unambiguous grammars can force language designers to make more or less arbitrary…
The identification of syllables within phonetic sequences is known as syllabification. This task is thought to play an important role in natural language understanding, speech production, and the development of speech recognition systems.…
We consider languages defined by signed grammars which are similar to context-free grammars except productions with signs associated to them are allowed. As a consequence, the words generated also have signs. We use the structure of the…
We study the problem of deciding whether a given language is directed. A language $L$ is \emph{directed} if every pair of words in $L$ have a common (scattered) superword in $L$. Deciding directedness is a fundamental problem in connection…
Tandem duplication is an evolutionary process whereby a segment of DNA is replicated and proximally inserted. The different configurations that can arise from this process give rise to some interesting combinatorial questions. Firstly, we…
We present a new recursive generation algorithm for prefix normal words. These are binary strings with the property that no substring has more 1s than the prefix of the same length. The new algorithm uses two operations on binary strings,…
We address the separability problem for straight-line string constraints. The separability problem for languages of a class C by a class S asks: given two languages A and B in C, does there exist a language I in S separating A and B (i.e.,…
Indexed languages are a classical notion in formal language theory. As the language equivalent of second-order pushdown automata, they have received considerable attention in higher-order model checking. Unfortunately, counting properties…
A language is dense if the set of all infixes (or subwords) of the language is the set of all words. Here, it is shown that it is decidable whether the language accepted by a nondeterministic Turing machine with a one-way read-only input…
We consider a language together with the subword relation, the cover relation, and regular predicates. For such structures, we consider the extension of first-order logic by threshold- and modulo-counting quantifiers. Depending on the…
Although current large language models are complex, the most basic specifications of the underlying language generation problem itself are simple to state: given a finite set of training samples from an unknown language, produce valid new…