Regular Article
Logical Description of Context-free Graph Languages

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Abstract

A graph languageLis in the class C-edNCE of context-free edNCE graph languages if and only ifL=f(T) wherefis a partial function on graphs that can be defined in monadic second-order logic andTis the set of all trees over some ranked alphabet. This logical characterization implies a large number of closure and decidability properties of the context-free edNCE graph languages. Rather than context-free graph grammars we use regular path descriptions to define graph languages.

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J. van Leeuwen, Ed.

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E-mail: [email protected].

Present address: Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit, de Boelelaan 1081a, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected].