1.2 THREE BASIC CONCEPTS
Three fundamental ideas are the major themes of this book: languages, grammars, and automata. In the course of our study we will explore many results about these concepts and about their relationship to each other. First, we must understand the meaning of the terms.
Languages
We are all familiar with the notion of natural languages, such as English and French. Still, most of us would probably find it difficult to say exactly what the word “language” means. Dictionaries define the term informally as a system suitable for the expression of certain ideas, facts, or concepts, including a set of symbols and rules for their manipulation. While this gives us an intuitive idea of what a language is, it is not sufficient as ...
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