Glossary: Logical Connectives
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The following material is an adapted form of material created by student participants of the project e-Learning Resources for Semantics (e-LRS). Involved participants: Lisa, Marthe, Elisabeth, Isabelle.
Logical Connectives
Definition
Logical connectives are
- the conjunction and (∧),
- the disjunction or (∨),
- the implication if...then... (⊃),
- the equivalence (or: bi-implication) if and only if (⇔),
- the negation not (¬)
They are used in order to connect atomic formulae in logical language, i.e. atomic sentences in natural language.
Examples
The following examples refer to the scenario given in an online exercises.
Sentence: Paul rather wants to live in Munich and Alice is small.
Complex formula: wants-to-live-in-Munich(paul) ∧ small(alice)
Sentence: Walter is a dog or Tom is not blonde.
Complex formula: dog(walter) ∨ ¬blonde(tom)
References
Literature
- Levine, Robert D., Frank Richter, and Manfred Sailer (in preparation): Formal Semantics. An Empirically Grounded Approach. Stanford: CSLI Publications. Draft of April 2012. Chapter 2.
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