Cyclic Shift in the Lambek Calculus

Abstract

We enrich the Lambek calculus with the cyclic shift operation, which is expected to model the closure operator of formal languages with respect to cyclic shifts. We introduce a Gentzen-style calculus and prove cut elimination. Secondly, we turn to categorial grammars based on this calculus and show that they can generate non-context-free languages; besides, we consider a related calculus where the cyclic shift is a structural rule, and compare recognizing power of these two calculi. Thirdly, we attempt to embed the Lambek calculus with the cyclic shift operation in the hypergraph Lambek calculus. This results in considering a ``bracelet'' operation, which can be defined through the cyclic shift, union, and the reversal operation.