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Languages and Automata

In: Further Algebra and Applications

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  • P. M. Cohn

    (University College London, Department of Mathematics)

Abstract

Many problems in mathematics consist in the calculation of a number or function, and our task may be to classify the different types of calculation that can arise. This can be done very effectively by describing simple machines which could carry out these calculations. Of course the discussion is entirely theoretical (we are not con­cerned with building the machines), but it is no accident that this way of thinking became current in the age of computers. Alan Turing, one of the pioneers of digital computers, used just this method in 1936 to attack decision problems in logic, by introducing the class of `computable functions’, i.e. functions that could be computed on a Turing machine. This development has had many consequences, most of them outside our scope. However, the simplest machines, automata, have an immediate algebraic interpretation. In the algebraic study of languages one uses simple sets of rules (`grammars’) to derive certain types of languages, not mirroring all the complexities of natural languages, but more akin to programming languages. It turns out that these languages can also be described in terms of the machines needed to generate them, and in this chapter we give a brief introduction to algebraic languages and automata.

Suggested Citation

  • P. M. Cohn, 2003. "Languages and Automata," Springer Books, in: Further Algebra and Applications, chapter 11, pages 395-429, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4471-0039-3_11
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4471-0039-3_11
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