Learning Regular Languages from Positive Evidence

Abstract The current study explores how multilingual speakers with three typologically different languages (satellite-framed, verb-framed and equipollent-framed) encode and gauge event similarity in the domain of caused motion. Specifically, it addresses whether, and to what extent, the acquisition of an L2-English and an L3-Japanese reconstructs the lexicalization and conceptualization patterns established in the L1-Cantonese when the target language is actively involved in the decision-making process. Results show that multilingual speakers demonstrated an ongoing process of cognitive restructuring towards the target language (L3) in both linguistic encoding (event structures and semantic representations) and non-linguistic conceptualization (reaction time). And the degree of the restructuring is modulated by the amount of language contact with the L2 and L3. The study suggests that learning a language means internalizing a new way of thinking and provides positive evidence for L3-biased cognitive restructuring within the framework of thinking-for-speaking.

Download Full-text

On the state complexity of intersection of regular languages

ACM SIGACT News ◽

10.1145/126537.126543 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 22 (3) ◽

pp. 52-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Sheng Yu ◽

Qingyu Zhuang

Keyword(s):

The State ◽

Regular Languages ◽

State Complexity

Download Full-text

On Sub Regular OL Forms

Fundamenta Informaticae ◽

10.3233/fi-1981-4107 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 135-149

Author(s):

J. Albert ◽

H.A. Maurer ◽

Th. Ottmann

Keyword(s):

Sufficient Conditions ◽

Necessary And Sufficient Conditions ◽

Regular Languages ◽

Regularity Problem ◽

Necessary And Sufficient

We present necessary and sufficient conditions for an OL form F to generate regular languages only. The conditions at issue can be effectively checked, whence the “regularity problem for OL forms” is proven decidable.

Download Full-text

Lower bounds for the state complexity of probabilistic languages and the language of prime numbers

Journal of Logic and Computation ◽

10.1093/logcom/exaa007 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 175-192

Author(s):

NathanaËl Fijalkow

Keyword(s):

Lower Bound ◽

Lower Bounds ◽

Prime Numbers ◽

Regular Languages ◽

Automata Theory ◽

Seminal Paper ◽

Probabilistic Automata ◽

State Complexity ◽

Probabilistic Languages ◽

Alternating Automata

Abstract This paper studies the complexity of languages of finite words using automata theory. To go beyond the class of regular languages, we consider infinite automata and the notion of state complexity defined by Karp. Motivated by the seminal paper of Rabin from 1963 introducing probabilistic automata, we study the (deterministic) state complexity of probabilistic languages and prove that probabilistic languages can have arbitrarily high deterministic state complexity. We then look at alternating automata as introduced by Chandra, Kozen and Stockmeyer: such machines run independent computations on the word and gather their answers through boolean combinations. We devise a lower bound technique relying on boundedly generated lattices of languages, and give two applications of this technique. The first is a hierarchy theorem, stating that there are languages of arbitrarily high polynomial alternating state complexity, and the second is a linear lower bound on the alternating state complexity of the prime numbers written in binary. This second result strengthens a result of Hartmanis and Shank from 1968, which implies an exponentially worse lower bound for the same model.

Download Full-text

Fuzzy regular languages over finite and infinite words

Fuzzy Sets and Systems ◽

10.1016/j.fss.2006.02.004 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 157 (11) ◽

pp. 1532-1549 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Werner Kuich ◽

George Rahonis

Keyword(s):

Regular Languages ◽

Infinite Words

Download Full-text

Caterpillar Dualities and Regular Languages

SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics ◽

10.1137/120879270 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 1287-1294

Author(s):

Péter L. Erdös ◽

Claude Tardif ◽

Gábor Tardos

Keyword(s):

Regular Languages

Download Full-text

On Fluellen's Figures, Christ Figures, and James Figures

PMLA ◽

10.2307/461453 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 89 (2) ◽

pp. 302-311 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Richard Levin

Keyword(s):

Alexander The Great ◽

Great Strength ◽

Henry V ◽

Positive Evidence ◽

Christ Figures

The method used by some recent critics to prove that certain Shakespearean characters are “figures” of Christ (or of other biblical or Renaissance personages) was parodied by Shakespeare himself in Fluellen's comparison of Henry v to Alexander the Great. Its success is guaranteed in advance, since it allows the critic to select only the similarities between the two persons being compared without considering whether these are unique or whether they are more significant than the differences between them. The evidence is thus subjected to a double screening: the critic determines which events in the character's career can be compared to the historical personage, and then which aspects of those events are relevant to the comparison. Even the differences between them can be converted into positive evidence. It is therefore possible by this method to prove that almost any character is a figure of Christ or of King James or of almost anyone else, which is the great strength of “Fluellenism” and also its great weakness, since a method that can prove anything proves nothing.

Download Full-text