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1.3 Sentences

The  many-sorted terms on a signature Sigma=(S,TF,PF,P) and a set of sorted, non-overloaded variables X are built from:

We refer to such terms as  fully-qualified terms, to avoid confusion with the terms of the language considered in Chapter 2, which allow the omission of qualifications and explicit sorts when these are unambiguously determined by the context.

For a many-sorted signature Sigma= (S,TF,PF,P) the  many-sorted sentences in Sen(Sigma) are the usual closed many-sorted first-order logic formulae, built from atomic formulae using quantification (over sorted variables) and logical connectives. An inner quantification over a variable makes a hole in the scope of an outer quantification over the same variable, regardless of the sorts of the variables. Implication may be taken as primitive, the other connectives being regarded as derived.

The  atomic formulae are:

Definedness assertions may be derived from existential equations using conjunction, or regarded as applications of fixed predicates. Strong equations may be derived from existential equations, using negation and disjunction; existential equations may be derived from strong equations and definedness assertions, or regarded as applications of fixed predicates.

The sentences Sen(Sigma) also include  sort-generation constraints. Let Sigma=(S,TF,PF, P). A sort-generation constraint consists of (S',F') with S' C S and F' C TF union PF. 3


CoFI Document: CASL/Summary --Version 0.99-- 21 April 1998.
Comments to cofi-language@brics.dk

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