The Chomsky Hierarchy

Prof. Busch - LSU 1

Linear-Bounded Automata:

Same as Turing Machines with one difference:

the input string tape space

is the only tape space allowed to use

Prof. Busch - LSU 2

 Linear Bounded Automaton (LBA)

Input string
[ a b c d e ]

Working space
Left-end Right-end
in tape
marker marker

All computation is done between end markers

Prof. Busch - LSU 3

We define LBA’s as NonDeterministic

Open Problem:
NonDeterministic LBA’s
have same power as
Deterministic LBA’s ?

Prof. Busch - LSU 4

Example languages accepted by LBAs:

n n n n!
L = {a b c } L = {a }

LBA’s have more power than PDA’s

(pushdown automata)

LBA’s have less power than Turing Machines

Prof. Busch - LSU 5

Unrestricted Grammars:

Productions
u→v

String of variables String of variables

and terminals and terminals

Prof. Busch - LSU 6

Example unrestricted grammar:

S → aBc
aB → cA
Ac → d

Prof. Busch - LSU 7

Theorem:
A language L is Turing-Acceptable
if and only if L is generated by an
unrestricted grammar

Prof. Busch - LSU 8

Context-Sensitive Grammars:

Productions
u→v

String of variables String of variables

and terminals and terminals

and: |u| ≤ |v|

Prof. Busch - LSU 9
The language n n n
{a b c }
is context-sensitive:

S → abc | aAbc
Ab → bA
Ac → Bbcc
bB → Bb
aB → aa | aaA
Prof. Busch - LSU 10
Theorem:
A language L is context sensistive
if and only if
it is accepted by a Linear-Bounded automaton

Observation:
There is a language which is context-sensitive
but not decidable
Prof. Busch - LSU 11
The Chomsky Hierarchy

Non Turing-Acceptable

Turing-Acceptable
decidable

Context-sensitive

Context-free

Regular
Prof. Busch - LSU 12