Formula (mathematical logic)

Formula (mathematical logic)

In mathematical logic, a formula is a type of abstract object a token of which is a symbol or string of symbols which may be interpreted as any meaningful unit (i.e. a name, an adjective, a proposition, a phrase, a string of names, a string of phrases, etcetera) in a formal language. Two different strings of symbols may be tokens of the same formula. It is not necessary for the existence of a formula that there be any tokens of it. The exact definition of a formula depends on the particular formal language in question. [Hunter, Geoffrey, Metalogic: An Introduction to the Metatheory of Standard First-Order Logic]

A fairly typical definition (specific to first-order logic) goes as follows: Formulas are defined relative to a particular formal language and "relation symbols", where each of the function and relation symbols comes supplied with an arity that indicates the number of arguments it takes.

Then a term is defined recursively as
#A variable,
#A constant, or
#"f"("t"1,...,"t""n"), where "f" is an "n"-ary function symbol, and "t"1,...,"t""n" are terms.

An atomic formula is one of the form:
#"t"1="t"2, where "t"1 and "t"2 are terms, or
#"R"("t"1,...,"t""n"), where "R" is an "n"-ary relation symbol, and "t"1,...,"t""n" are terms.

Finally, the set of formulae is defined to be the smallest set containing the set of atomic formulae such that the following holds:
# egphi is a formula when phi is a formula;
#(phi land psi) and (phi lor psi) are formulae when phi and psi are formulae;
#exists x, phi is a formula when "x" is a variable and phi is a formula;
#forall x, phi is a formula when x is a variable and phi is a formula (alternatively, forall x, phi could be defined as an abbreviation for egexists x, egphi).

If a formula has no occurrences of exists x or forall x, for any variable x, then it is called "quantifier-free". An "existential formula" is a string of existential quantification followed by a quantifier-free formula.

ee also

*Well-formed formula
*Theorem

References

*cite book | author = Hinman, P. | title = Fundamentals of Mathematical Logic | publisher = A K Peters | year = 2005 | id = ISBN 1-568-81262-0


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