Prefix grammars: An alternative characterization of the regular languages (Q1332773)

A prefix grammar \(G\) describes a language \(L_ G\) by (1) explicitly specifying a finite subset of the strings of \(L_ G\), and (2) specifying productions that rewrite prefixes of strings in \(L_ G\), to yield other strings in \(L_ G\). Suffix grammars can be defined in the obvious manner analogous to prefix grammars. This paper shows that prefix grammars generate exactly the regular languages.