2014/05/02 by Mehryar Mohri, Michael Riley, Mohri, Mehryar +2
Computer Science · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Formal Languages and Automata Theory (cs.FL) #Logic, programming, and type systems #Natural Language Processing Techniques #cs.FL #semigroups and automata theory
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1405.0500
arxiv created 2014/05/02 · openalex publication_date 2014/05/02 · arxiv updated 2014/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a disambiguation algorithm for weighted automata. The algorithm admits two main stages: a pre-disambiguation stage followed by a transition removal stage. We give a detailed description of the algorithm and the proof of its correctness. The algorithm is not applicable to all weighted automata but we prove sufficient conditions for its applicability in the case of the tropical semiring by introducing the *weak twins property*. In particular, the algorithm can be used with all acyclic weighted automata, relevant to applications. While disambiguation can sometimes be achieved using determinization, our disambiguation algorithm in some cases can return a result that is exponentially smaller than any equivalent deterministic automaton. We also present some empirical evidence of the space benefits of disambiguation over determinization in speech recognition and machine translation applications.