Learning grammars and automata with queries

Abstract

When learning languages or grammars, an attractive alternative to using a large corpus is to learn by interacting with the environment. This can allow us to deal with situations where data is scarce or expensive, but testing or experimenting is possible. The situation, which arises in a number of fields, is formalised in a setting called active learning or query learning. By controlling better the information to which one has access, this setting provides us with a better understanding of the hardness of learning tasks. But the setting also allows us to solve practical learning situations, for which new algorithms are needed.