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Non-logical symbol


In logic, the formal languages used to create expressions consist of symbols, which can be broadly divided into constants and variables. The constants of a language can further be divided into logical symbols and non-logical symbols (sometimes also called logical and non-logical constants).

The non-logical symbols of a language of first-order logic consist of predicates and individual constants. These include symbols that, in an interpretation, may stand for individual constants, variables, functions, or predicates. A language of first-order logic is a formal language over the alphabet consisting of its non-logical symbols and its logical symbols. The latter include logical connectives, quantifiers, and variables that stand for statements.

A non-logical symbol only has meaning or semantic content when one is assigned to it by means of an interpretation. Consequently, a sentence containing a non-logical symbol lacks meaning except under an interpretation, so a sentence is said to be true or false under an interpretation. Main article: first order logic; especially, Syntax of first-order logic.

The logical constants, by contrast, have the same meaning in all interpretations. They include the symbols for truth-functional connectives (such as and, or, not, implies, and logical equivalence) and the symbols for the quantifiers "for all" and "there exists".


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