Abstract
Translations from one language to another arise in many fields of science: in computer science (compilers, data base views), logic (embeddings), natural language (translation), and philosophy (Montague grammar). In all these fields one can find the same method: compositional translation, or in mathematical formulation, algebraic translation. In some fields it is a standard method, in other fields a rare approach. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of compositional translations. Special attention will be given to the notion ‘correct translation’ (which can be formalized by commutativity of a diagram). Furthermore, the first steps will be will be made towards a mathematical theory of translating.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
F. Bancilhon and N. Spyratos. Update semantics of relational views. ACM Transactions on data bases, 6:557–575, 1981.
R.M. Burstall and P.J. Landin. Programs and their proofs: an algebraic approach. In B. Meltzer and D. Michie, editors, Machine Intelligence, volume 5, chapter 2, pages 17–43. American Elsevier, New York, 1969.
L.M. Chirica. Contributions to compiler correctness. PhD thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 1976. report UCLA-ENG-7697.
D. van Dalen. Intuitionistic logic. In D. Gabbay and F. Guenthner, editors, Handbook of philosphical logic. Vol III. Alternatives to classical logic, number 166 in Synthese Library, chapter 4, pages 225–339. Reidel. Dodrecht, 1986.
D. Davidson and G. Harman, editors. Semantics of natural language. Number 40 in Synthese library. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1972.
P. Dybjer. Using domain algebras to prove the correctness of a compiler. In K. Mehlhorn, editor, STACS 85, 2nd annual symposium on theoretical aspects of computer science, Saarbrücken, 1985, number 182 in Lecture notes in computer science, pages 98–108, Berlin, 1985. Springer.
P. van Emde Boas and T.M.V. Janssen. The impact of Frege’s principle of compositionality for the semantics of programming and natural language. In “Begriffsschrift”. Jenaer Frege-Conferenz 1979, pages 110–129, Jena, 1979. Friedrich-Schiller Universität.
R.L. Epstein. The semantic foundation of logic. vol 1. Propositional logic. Number 35 in Nijhoff international philosophy series. Nijhoff/Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1990. Second edition published by Oxford University Press, Oxford.
J. Goguen and R. Burstall. Institutions: abstract model theory for specification and programming. Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery, 39(1):95–146, 1992.
J.A. Goguen and G. Malcolm. Algebraic semantics of imperative programs. Foundations of computing. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1996.
J. Groenendijk and M. Stokhof. Semantic analysis of wh-complements. Linguistics and Philosophy, 5:175–233, 1982.
H.-K. Hung and J. I. Zucker. Semantics of pointers, referencing and dereferencing with intensional logic. In Proc. 6th annual IEEE symposium on Logic in Computer Science, pages 127–136, Los Almolitos, California, 1991. IEEE Computer Society Press.
T.M.V. Janssen. Foundations and Applications of Montague Grammar: part 1, Philosophy, Framework, Computer Science. Number 19 in CWI tract. Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science, Amsterdam, 1986.
T.M.V. Janssen. Compositionality (with an appendix by B. Partee). In J. van Benthem and A. ter Meulen, editors, Handbook of logic and language, chapter 7, pages 417–473. Elsevier, Amsterdam and The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1997.
T.M.V. Janssen. Algebraic translations, correctness and algebraic compiler construction. Journal of theoretical computer science, 1998. to appear.
T.M.V. Janssen and P. van Emde Boas. The expressive power of intensional logic in the semantics of programming languages. In J. Gruska, editor, Mathematical foundations of computer science 1977 (Proc. 6th. symp. Tatranska Lomnica), number 53 in Lecture notes in computer science, pages 303–311, Berlin, 1977. Springer.
T.M.V. Janssen and P. van Emde Boas. On the proper treatment of referencing, dereferencing and assignment. In A. Salomaa and M. Steinby, editors, Automata, languages and programming (Proc. 4th. coll. Turku), number 52 in Lecture notes in computer science, pages 282–300, Berlin, 1977. Springer.
D. Lewis. General semantics. Synthese, 22:18–67, 1970. Reprinted in [5, pp. 169/2-248] and in [31, pp. 1/2-50].
A. Mazurkiewicz. Parallel recursive program schemes. In J. Becvar, editor, Mathematical foundations of computer science (4 th. coll., Marianske Lazne), number 32 in Lecture notes in computer science, pages 75–87, Berlin, 1975. Springer.
E. Meijer. Calculating compilers. PhD thesis, Katholieke University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, 1992. ISBN 90-9004673-9.
H. J. Milner. Processes: a mathematical model of computing agents. In Rose H.E and J.C. Shepherdson (eds.), editors, Logic colloquium’ 73 (Bristol), number 80 in Studies in logic and the foundations of mathematics, pages 157–173, Amsterdam, 1975. North Holland.
R. Milner and R. Weyrauch. Proving compiler correctness in a mechanized logic. In B. Meltzer and D. Michie, editors, Machine Intelligence, volume 7, chapter 3, pages 51–70. American Elsevier, New York, 1972.
R. Montague. Universal grammar. Theoria, 36:373–398, 1970. Reprinted in [41, pp. 222/2-246].
R. Montague. The proper treatment of quantification in ordinary English. In K.J.J. Hintikka, J.M.E. Moravcsik, and P. Suppes, editors, Approaches to natural language, Synthese Library 49, pages 221–242. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1973. Reprinted in [41, pp. 247/2-270].
F.L. Morris. Advice on structuring compilers and proving them correct. In Proceedings ACM Symposium on principles of programming languages, Boston, 1973, pages 144–152. Association for Computing Machinery, 1973.
Y. Moscowitz and E. Shapiro. On the structural simplicity of machines and languages. Technical Report CS93-04, Weizman institute, dept. of appl. math. and comp. sc., Rehovot, Israel, 1993. to appear in ‘Annals of mathematics and artificial intelligence’.
P. Mosses. A constructive approach to compiler correctness. In N.D. Jones, editor, Semantics-directed compiler generation (Proc. Workshop, Aarhus), number 94 in Lecture notes in computer science, pages 189–210. Springer, Berlin, 1980.
P. Mosses. A constructive approach to compiler correctness. In J. de Bakker and J. van Leeuwen, editors, Automata, languages and programming (seventh colloquium, Noordwijkerhout), number 85 in Lecture notes in computer science, pages 449–469. Springer, Berlin, 1980.
M. Müller-Olm. Modular Compiler verification. Number 1283 in Lecture notes in computer science. Springer, Berlin, 1997.
E.J. Neuholt, editor. Formal description of programming language concepts, Proc, IFIP working conference on formal description of programming concepts St. Andrews, Canada 1977, Amsterdam, 1978.
B. Partee, editor. Montague grammar. Academic Press, New York, 1976.
B. Partee, A. ter Meulen, and R.E. Wall. Mathematical Methods in Linguistics. Number 30 in Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1990.
W. Polak. Compiler specification and verification. Number 124 in Lecture notes in computer science. Springer, Berlin, 1981.
M.T. Rosetta. Compositional Translation. The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science 230. Kluwer, Dordrecht, 1994. (M.T. Rosetta = L. Appelo, T. Janssen, F. de Jong, J. Landsbergen (eds.)).
V. Royer. Transformations of denotational semantics in semantics directed compiler generation. In Proceedings of the SIGPLAN’ 86 symposium on compiler construction, SIGPLAN notices Vol. 21, Nr. 7, pages 68–73. Association for Computing Machinery, 1986.
T. Rus. Algebraic construction of compilers. Theoretical Computer Science, 90:271–308, 1991.
T. Rus. Algebraic processing of programming languages. In A. Nijholt, G. Scollo, and R. Steetskamp, editors, Algebraic methods in language processing AMILP’95, number 10 in Twente workshop In language technology, pages 1–41, Enschede, 1995. Universiteit Twente.
E. Shapiro. Separating concurrent languages with categories of language embeddings. In Proceedings of the 23 annual symposium on theory of computing (STOC’91, New Orleans), pages 198–208. ACM, 1991.
E. Shapiro. Embeddings among concurrent programming languages. In W. R Cleaveland, editor, Proc. third international conference on concurrency theory, Stony Brook 92, Springer lecture notes in computer science, pages 486–503, Berlin, 1992. Springer.
J.W. Thatcher, E.G. Wagner, and J.B. Wright. More on advice on structuring compilers and proving them correct. In H.A. Maurer, editor, Automata, languages and programming. (Proc. 6th. coll. Graz), number 71 in Lecture notes in computer science, Berlin, 1979. Springer.
R.H. Thomason. Formal Philosophy. Selected Papers of Richard Montague. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1974.
M. Tofte. Compiler generators. What they can do, what they might do, and what they will probably never do. Number 19 in EATCS monographs on theoretical computer science. Springer, Berlin, 1990.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Janssen, T.M.V. (1998). An overview of compositional translations. In: de Roever, WP., Langmaack, H., Pnueli, A. (eds) Compositionality: The Significant Difference. COMPOS 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1536. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49213-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49213-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65493-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49213-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive