Abstract
A general set of conditions is given under which a property is undecidable for a family of languages. Examples are given of the application of this result to wellknown families of languages.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Y. Bar-Hillel, M. Perles andE. Shamir, On formal properties of simple phrase structure grammars.Z. Phonetik Sprachwiss. Kommunikat. 14 (1961), 143–172.
S. Ginsburg,The Mathematical Theory of Context-Free Languages. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1966.
S. Ginsburg andS. Greibach, Deterministic context-free languages.Information and Control 9 (1966), 620–648.
S. Ginsburg andS. Greibach, Abstract families of languages. SDC Document TM-738/031/00, April 1967.
S. Ginsburg, S. Greibach andM. Harrison, One-way stack automata.J. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 14 (1967), 389–418.
S. Ginsburg andE. H. Spanier, Bounded ALGOL-like languages.Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 113 (1964), 333–368.
S. Ginsburg andJ. S. Ullian, Ambiguity in context-free languages.J. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 13 (1966), 62–89.
S. Greibach, The unsolvability of the recognition of linear context-free languages.J. Assoc. Comput. Mach. 13 (1966), 582–587.
J. Hopcroft andJ. Ullman, An approach to a unified theory of automata. (To appear inBell System Tech. J.)
S. Rabin andD. Scott, Finite automata and their decision problems.IBM J. Res. Develop. 3 (1959), 114–125.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Research sponsored in part by the Air Force cambridge Research Laboratories, Office of Aerospace Research, USAF, under Contract F1962867C0008, and by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Aerospace Research, USAF under Grant No. AF-AFOSR-1203-67.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Greibach, S. A note on undecidable properties of formal languages. Math. Systems Theory 2, 1–6 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01691341
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01691341