Parallel multiple context-free grammars, finite-state translation systems, and polynomial-time recognizable subclasses of lexical-functional grammars

Abstract

A number of grammatical formalisms were introduced to define the syntax of natural languages. Among them are parallel multiple context-free grammars (pmcfg's) and lexical-functional grammars (lfg's). Pmcfg's and their subclass called multiple context-free grammars (mcfg's) are natural extensions of cfg's, and pmcfg's are known to be recognizable in polynomial time. Some subclasses of lfg's have been proposed, but they were shown to generate an NP-complete language. Finite state translation systems (fts') were introduced as a computational model of transformational grammars. In this paper, three subclasses of lfg's called nc-lfg's, dc-lfg's and fc-lfg's are introduced and the generative capacities of the above mentioned grammatical formalisms are investigated. First, we show that the generative capacity of fts' is equal to that of nc-lfg's. As relations among subclasses of those formalisms, it is shown that the generative capacities of deterministic fts', dc-lfg's, and pmcfg's are equal to each other, and the generative capacity of fc-lfg's is equal to that of mcfg's. It is also shown that at least one NP-complete language is generated by fts'. Consequently, deterministic fts', dc-lfg's and fc-lfg's can be recognized in polynomial time. However, fts' (and nc-lfg's) cannot, if P ≠ NP.