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The Independence of Inherent Ambiguity From Complementedness Among Context-Free Languages

Published:01 October 1966Publication History
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Abstract

Call a (context-free) language unambiguous if it is not inherently ambiguous. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, the suspicion has arisen that the unambiguous languages might be precisely those languages with context-free complements. The two theorems presented in this paper lay the suspicion to rest by providing (1) an inherently ambiguous language with context-free complement and (2) an unambiguous language without context-free complement. This establishes the independence of inherent ambiguity from complementedness among the context-free languages.

References

  1. 1 GINSBURG, S., AND SPANIR, E. H. Semigroups, Presburger formulas, and languages. Pacific J. Math. 16 (June 1966), 285-296.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. 2 Giusnua S., AND ULLIAN, J. Ambiguity in context free languages. J. ACM 13 (Jan. 1966), 62-89. Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  3. 3 Koing, D. Theorie der endlichen und unendlichen Graphen. Chelsea Pub. Co., New York, 1950.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. 4 PAmH, R.J. Language-generating devices. Quart. Prog. Rep. No. 60, Res. Lab. of Electronics, MIT, Jan. 1961, pp. 199-212; reprinted with minor editorial revisions as: On context-free languages, J. ACM I5 (Oct. 1966), 570-581 (this issue).nGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar

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  1. The Independence of Inherent Ambiguity From Complementedness Among Context-Free Languages

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        cover image Journal of the ACM
        Journal of the ACM  Volume 13, Issue 4
        Oct. 1966
        159 pages
        ISSN:0004-5411
        EISSN:1557-735X
        DOI:10.1145/321356
        Issue’s Table of Contents

        Copyright © 1966 ACM

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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        • Published: 1 October 1966
        Published in jacm Volume 13, Issue 4

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