1. A method of processing an automaton A, the method comprising: computing via a processor of ε-closure C of an automaton as follows: 
 C[p] ={( q,w ): q∈ε[p],d[p,q]=w∈K−{Ō}} where ε[p] represents a set of states reachable from “p” via a path labeled with ε, d[p,g] represents an ε-distance from p to q in the automaton A, K is a semiring, and w represents weights; modifying outgoing transitions of each state “p” by: removing each of the outgoing transitions labeled with an empty string; and adding to each of the outgoing transitions leaving ones of the set of states “p” a non-empty-string transition, wherein each of the set of states “q” is left with its weights pre-{circle around (x)}-multiplied by an ε-distance from a corresponding one of the set of states “p” to a respective one of the set of states “q” in the automaton A; and applying the modified automaton A to process information in a field of at least one of: speech recognition, speech synthesis and text processing.