Context sensitive language can be recognized by a :

2018

Context sensitive language can be recognized by a :

  1. A.

    Finite state machine

  2. B.

    Deterministic finite automata

  3. C.

    Non-deterministic finite automata

  4. D.

    Linear bounded automata

Attempted by 140 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

Answer: Linear bounded automata recognize context-sensitive languages.

Reason: A linear bounded automaton (LBA) is a nondeterministic Turing machine whose tape head is restricted to a workspace that is at most linearly larger than the input. This restriction gives the machine workspace proportional to the input length, which is exactly what is needed to recognize context-sensitive languages.

  • Linear bounded automaton: a nondeterministic Turing machine with tape bounded by a constant times the input length; it has linear workspace.

  • Formal characterization: context-sensitive languages are exactly the languages accepted by LBAs (equivalently NSPACE(n)).

  • Why finite automata are insufficient: finite state machines (deterministic or nondeterministic) have no additional workspace beyond states and accept only regular languages, so they cannot recognize languages that require counting or matching across unbounded portions of the input.

  • Example: the language {a^n b^n c^n | n ≥ 1} is context-sensitive; it cannot be recognized by finite automata or pushdown automata but can be accepted by an LBA using linear workspace to verify equal counts.

Conclusion: Linear bounded automata are the correct recognizers for context-sensitive languages.

A video solution is available for this question — log in and enroll to watch it.

Explore the full course: Mppsc Assistant Professor