A Model-Theoretic Description of Tree Adjoining Grammars

Tree-walking automata (TWAs) recently received new attention in the fields of formal languages and databases. Towards a better understanding of their expressiveness, we characterize them in terms of transitive closure logic formulas in normal form. It is conjectured by Engelfriet and Hoogeboom that TWAs cannot define all regular tree languages, or equivalently, all of monadic second-order logic. We prove this conjecture for a restricted, but powerful, class of TWAs. In particular, we show that 1-bounded TWAs, that is TWAs that are only allowed to traverse every edge of the input tree at most once in every direction, cannot define all regular languages. We then extend this result to a class of TWAs that can simulate first-order logic (FO) and is capable of expressing properties not definable in FO extended with regular path expressions; the latter logic being a valid abstraction of current query languages for XML and semi-structured data.Keywordsautomatalogicregular tree languages

Computing the relative entropy between regular tree languages

Closure properties of linear context-free tree languages with an application to optimality theory

The grammar representation of a narrowing tree for a syntactically deterministic conditional term rewriting system and a pair of terms is a regular tree grammar that generates expressions for substitutions obtained by all possible innermost-narrowing derivations that start with the pair and end with particular non-narrowable terms. In this paper, under a certain syntactic condition, we show a transformation of the grammar representation of a narrowing tree into another regular tree grammar that overapproximately generates the ranges of ground substitutions generated by the grammar representation. In our previous work, such a transformation is restricted to the ranges w.r.t. a given single variable, and thus, the usefulness is limited. We extend the previous transformation by representing the range of a ground substitution as a tuple of terms, which is obtained by the coding for finite trees. We show a precise definition of the transformation and prove that the language of the transformed regular tree grammar is an overapproximation of the ranges of ground substitutions generated by the grammar representation. We leave an experiment to evaluate the usefulness of the transformation as future work.

The generative capacity of combinatory categorial grammars as acceptors of tree languages is investigated. It is demonstrated that the such obtained tree languages can also be generated by simple monadic context-free tree grammars. However, the subclass of pure combinatory categorial grammars cannot even accept all regular tree languages. Additionally, the tree languages accepted by combinatory categorial grammars with limited rule degrees are characterized: If only application rules are allowed, then they can accept only a proper subset of the regular tree languages, whereas they can accept exactly the regular tree languages once first degree composition rules are permitted.

Regular tree expressions are a formalism for describing regular tree languages, which can be accepted by a finite tree automaton as a standard model of computation. It was proved that the class of regular tree languages is a proper subclass of tree languages whose linear notations can be accepted by deterministic string pushdown automata. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for transforming regular tree expressions to equivalent real-time height-deterministic pushdown automata that accept the trees in their postfix notation.

In this survey we generalize some results on formal tree languages, tree grammars and tree automata by an algebraic treatment using semirings, fixed point theory, formal tree series and matrices. The use of these mathematical constructs makes definitions, constructions, and proofs more satisfactory from an mathematical point of view than the customary ones. The contents of this survey paper is indicated by the titles of the sections:<dl compact="compact"><dt>1.</dt><dd>Introduction</dd><dt>2.</dt><dd>Preliminaries</dd><dt>3.</dt><dd>Tree automata and systems of equations</dd><dt>4.</dt><dd>Closure properties and a Kleene Theorem for recognizable tree series</dd><dt>5.</dt><dd>Pushdown tree automata, algebraic tree systems, and a Kleene Theorem</dd><dt>6.</dt><dd>Tree series transducers</dd><dt>7.</dt><dd>Full abstract families of tree series</dd><dt>8.</dt><dd>Connections to formal power series</dd></dl>

We study query rewriting using views (QRV) for XML. Our queries and views are regular tree languages (RTLs) represented by tree automata over marked alphabets, where the markers serve as “node selectors”. We formally define query rewriting using views for RTLs and give an automata-based algorithm to compute the maximally contained rewriting. The formalism we use is equal in power with Monadic Second Order (MSO) logic, and our algorithm for computing QRV is the first to target this expressive class. Furthermore we prove a tight lower bound, thus showing that our algorithm is optimal. Another strength of our automata-based approach is that we are able to cast computing QRV into executing a sequence of intuitive operations on automata, thus rendering our approach practical as it can be easily implemented utilizing off-the-shelf automata toolboxes. Finally, we generalize our framework to account for more complex queries in the spirit of the FOR clause in XQuery. For this generalization as well, we give an optimal algorithm for computing the maximally contained rewriting of queries using views.KeywordsXMLView-Based RewritingTree Automata

Colored operads, series on colored operads, and combinatorial generating systems

In this article, we develop a new and somewhat unexpected connection between higher-order model-checking and linear logic. Our starting point is the observation that once embedded in the relational semantics of linear logic, the Church encoding of any higher-order recursion scheme (HORS) comes together with a dual Church encoding of an alternating tree automata (ATA) of the same signature. Moreover, the interaction between the relational interpretations of the HORS and of the ATA identifies the set of accepting states of the tree automaton against the infinite tree generated by the recursion scheme. We show how to extend this result to alternating parity automata (APT) by introducing a parametric version of the exponential modality of linear logic, capturing the formal properties of colors (or priorities) in higher-order model-checking. We show in particular how to reunderstand in this way the type-theoretic approach to higher-order model-checking developed by Kobayashi and Ong. We briefly explain in the end of the paper how this analysis driven by linear logic results in a new and purely semantic proof of decidability of the formulas of the monadic second-order logic for higher-order recursion schemes.

The use of regular tree grammars to represent and build models of formulae of first-order logic without equality is investigated. The combination of regular tree grammars with equational constraints provides a powerful and general way of representing Herbrand models. We show that the evaluation problem (i.e. the problem of finding the truth value of a formula in a given model) is decidable when models are represented in the way we propose. We also define a method to build such representations of models for first-order formulae. These results are a powerful extension of our former method for simultaneous search for refutations and models.

Type-based model checking algorithms for higher-order recursion schemes have recently emerged as a promising approach to the verification of functional programs. We introduce pattern-matching recursion schemes (PMRS) as an accurate model of computation for functional programs that manipulate algebraic data-types. PMRS are a natural extension of higher-order recursion schemes that incorporate pattern-matching in the defining rules.This paper is concerned with the following (undecidable) verification problem: given a correctness property φ, a functional program ℘ (qua PMRS) and a regular input set ℑ, does every term that is reachable from ℑ under rewriting by ℘ satisfy φ? To solve the PMRS verification problem, we present a sound semi-algorithm which is based on model-checking and counterexample guided abstraction refinement. Given a no-instance of the verification problem, the method is guaranteed to terminate.From an order-n PMRS and an input set generated by a regular tree grammar, our method constructs an order-n weak PMRS which over-approximates only the first-order pattern-matching behaviour, whilst remaining completely faithful to the higher-order control flow. Using a variation of Kobayashi's type-based approach, we show that the (trivial automaton) model-checking problem for weak PMRS is decidable. When a violation of the property is detected in the abstraction which does not correspond to a violation in the model, the abstraction is automatically refined by `unfolding' the pattern-matching rules in the program to give successively more and more accurate weak PMRS models.

Automated verification of all members of a (potentially infinite) set of programs has the potential to be useful in program synthesis, as well as in verification of dynamically loaded code, concurrent code, and language properties. Existing techniques for verification of sets of programs are limited in scope and unable to create or use interpretable or reusable information about sets of programs. The consequence is that one cannot learn anything from one verification problem that can be used in another. Unrealizability logic (UL), proposed by Kim et al. as the first Hoare-style proof system to prove properties over sets of programs (defined by a regular tree grammar), presents a theoretical framework that can express and use reusable insight. In particular, UL features nonterminal summaries ---inductive facts that characterize recursive nonterminals (analogous to procedure summaries in Hoare logic). In this work, we design the first UL proof synthesis algorithm, implemented as Wuldo. Specifically, we decouple the problem of deciding how to apply UL rules from the problem of synthesizing/checking nonterminal summaries by computing proof structure in a fully syntax-directed fashion. We show that Wuldo, when provided nonterminal summaries, can express and prove verification problems beyond the reach of existing tools, including establishing how infinitely many programs behave on infinitely many inputs. In some cases, Wuldo can even synthesize the necessary nonterminal summaries. Moreover, Wuldo can reuse previously proven nonterminal summaries across verification queries, making verification 1.96 times as fast as when summaries are instead proven from scratch.

We study the language-theoretical aspects of parameterized communicating automata (PCAs), in which processes communicate via rendez-vous. A given PCA can be run on any topology of bounded degree such as pipelines, rings, ranked trees, and grids. We show that, under a context bound, which restricts the local behavior of each process, PCAs are effectively complementable. Complementability is considered a key aspect of robust automata models and can, in particular, be exploited for verification. In this paper, we use it to obtain a characterization of context-bounded PCAs in terms of monadic second-order (MSO) logic. As the emptiness problem for context-bounded PCAs is decidable for the classes of pipelines, rings, and trees, their model-checking problem wrt. MSO properties also becomes decidable. While previous work on model checking parameterized systems typically uses temporal logics without next operator, our MSO logic allows one to express several natural next modalities.

We present effective criteria for first-order definability of regular tree languages. It is known that over words the absence of modulo counting (the “noncounting property”) characterizes the expressive power of first-order logic (McNaughton, Schutzenberger), whereas non-counting regular tree languages exist which are not first-order definable. We present new conditions on regular tree languages (more precisely, on tree automata) which imply nondefinability in first-order logic. One method is based on tree homomorphisms which allow to deduce nondefinability of one tree language from nondefinability of another tree language. Additionly we introduce a structural property of tree automata (the socalled Λ-∨-patterns) which also causes tree languages to be undefinable in first-order logic. Finally, it is shown that this notion does not yet give a complete characterization of first-order logic over trees. The proofs rely on the method of Ehrenfeucht-Fraisse games.