Abstract
New methods for computing perfect hash functions and applications of such functions to
the problems of lexicon design are reported in this paper. After stating the problem
and briefly discussing previous solutions, we present Cichelli's algorithm, which
introduced the form of the solutions we have pursued in this research. An informal
analysis of the problemis given, followed by a presentation of three algorithms which
refine and generalise Cichelli's method in different ways. We next report the results
of applying programmed versions of these algorithms to problem sets drawn from natural
and artificial languages. A discusion of conceptual designs for the application
of perfect hash functions to small and large computer lexicons is followed by
a summary of our research and suggestions for futher work.
