On the minimum vocabulary problem

Abstract

The “minimum vocabulary problem” for a dictionary has applications in indexing and other domains of information retrieval. A simple directed‐graph model of a dictionary results in a linear‐time algorithm for this problem. Since it is known that many minimum vocabularies can exist for a dictionary, a computationally useful criterion for finding a “desirable minimum vocabulary” is suggested and an O(|V|3) algorithm is outlined, where |V| is the number of words in the dictionary, duplicates eliminated. Furthermore, some enrichments to the model and the computational intractability of a variant called the 1‐lexicon problem are discussed. Directions for further work are indicated. © 1987 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Copyright © 1987 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.