Chapter II

First Order Languages

First-order logic language (Predicate Calculus) reflects more than

something of the structure of the statement. It breaks the statement into two
components: objects and properties (character).

Example 2.1.
- All birds fly. Object: bird-property: fly.
- Every man respects his parents. Object: man – property respect
( x , y ) , where x is a man y is a parent.

First-order logic is an essential for discussing other languages, in

which: there are common to all of them,
1- Logical symbols:  , ,   (connectives)
,  (quantifiers)
 equality.
2- language specific symbols:
i- constant symbols.
ii- relation symbols.

Informal examples of specific languages:

1- A Language for Number Theory:

Syntax Semantics
Constant symbols a, b 0, 1
Function symbols f, g , 

Relation symbols R 

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Let  ( x ) be the formula.
1-  ( x )   y  z ( g ( y , z )  x  y  x  z  x ) , which can be
translated as" "x is a prime number".
2-  ( x )    f ( z , z )  x is translated as:
"x is an even number".
3-  x  y x  y  0 "for all x there exists such that x  y  0 ".
4- "there exists infinitely many prime numbers" is translated as
x  y ( R ( x , y )  ( y ) ) .

2- A Language of Set Theory:

Syntax Semantics
Constant symbols - -
Function symbols - -
Relation symbols R 

(Note that, we can use the set  as a constant symbols). So, R ( x , y )

stands for x  y .

Examples 2.2.
- Let  ( x )  "x is an empty set"
  ( x )   y (  R ( , x ) ) .
- "there is only one empty set".
-  x  y ( ( x )   ( y )  x  y ) .
-  ( x , y )  "x  y "
 z (R (x , x )  R (x , y )) .

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3- A language for Group Theory:
Syntax Semantics
Constant symbols A e
f1  binary
Function symbols
f2 1 r-ary function
Relation symbols - -

To define a language more formally with

Constant symbols a1, a2 , ...

Function symbols f 1, f 2 , ...

Relation symbols R1 , R 2 , ...

we apply the following steps:

Step 1: Define the set of terms, denoted by I ( A , P ) , as: A is the set of all
constant symbol and all variables symbols x 1 , x 2 , ... .

P, the set of all operations {  f : f is a function symbol}.

Example 2.3.
1- In the language for number theory, terms appear like:
a , b , x 1 , x 2 , ..., f ( x 1, x 2 ), g ( a, x i ), ..., f ( g ( x j , a ), x 1 )

f ( b , b )  2 while g ( b , b )  1 .

x 2  3 y has an expression f ( g ( x , x ), f ( f ( y , y ), y ) ) .
2- The terms of language of set theory is the set I ( A , P ) , where no
operations, and no function symbols. Therefore P is empty, and
I ( A , P )  A , variables.

Step 2: Defining our wffs again as I ( A , P ) 

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 i- The set of atomic formulas
{ R ( t1, t 2 , ..., t k ) : R is a k-ary relation symbol and t1 , t 2 , ..., t k ) : R

is a k-ary relation symbol and t1 , t 2 , ..., t k are terms,  } .

ii- The set wffs is I (atomic formulas, { , ,  ,  , V ,  } where

, x , y
 :  : .
x  y 

Examples 2.4.
Of wffs in the language if number theory:
 x [( x  y )  R (f ( x , y )]
 x R ( a, x ) .

An important syntactic notion is "the free variab", tge variable that is

not quantified.

The set of free variables of wff   F (  ) - is defined by induction on

the construction of the set of wffs as:
i- If  is atomic, then F ()  all variables occurring in  . [ F ( f (b, b ) 
g ( x , f ( b , y ) ) )  { x , y }] .
ii- F ( 1   2 )  F ( 1  2 )  F ( 1   2 )  F ( 1 )  F (  2 ) .

iii- F (   )  F (  ) .
iv- F (  x  )  F (  )  { x } .
v- F (  z  )  F (  )  { x } .

Examples 2.5.
1-  x  y x  y  0 is a wff with no free variables.
2-  z x  y , wff with x and y are free variables.

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Remark 2.1.
A variable x can occur both free and bound in a formula, e.g.
( x  y   x  y x  y  0) .

Definition 2.1.
A sentence is a formula with no free variables.
For example, in number theory,  x R ( x , x ) is a sentence.

Definition 2.2.
A structure (an interpretation) for a syntactical language with:
Constant c1, c 2 , ..., c n ,

Function f 1, f 2 , ..., f n ,

Relation R1, R 2 , ..., R n ,

consists of:
1- A universe: a non-empty set U.
2- An element in U to each constant c i .

3- A mapping for each n-ary function f i ; f i : U k  U .

4- A mapping for each n-ary relation R i ; R i : U k  {T , F } .

Example 2.6.
Number theory language/
Syntax Semantics
Constant: a, b U N
, .

Function: f,g f (x , y )  x  y
g (x , y )  x y

Relation: R R ( x 1, x 2 )  x 1  x 2

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The formula    x (  ( x  b )  R ( ( f ( x , x ), g ( x , x ) ) is a true

sentence, 2 x  x 2 for all x  1 .

The formula    x  y f ( x , y )  f ( y , x ) is a true, where

f ( x , y ) is a term t1 , f ( y , x ) is a term t 2 and t1  t 2 is a relation.

R ( f ( x , x ), g ( x , x ) ) has an interpretation 2 x  x 2 which is true

or false according to the value of the free variable x in N.

Definition 2.3.
An assignment function s : V  U extends to a unique function
s : T  U as follows:
i- t T , a variable, s ( t )  s ( t ) .

ii- t T is a constant  s ( t )  t u .
iii- t  f i ( t1, t 2 , ..., t k ) T 

s ( t )  f iu ( s ( t1 ), s ( t 2 ), ..., s ( t k ) ) .

Example 2.7.
Let t  : f ( f ( x , x ), y ) and
s : V  U , where
x 2
y 5.
U
 s (t )  f ( s ( f ( x , x ), s ( y ) )
U U
f (f ( s ( x ), s ( x ) ), s ( y ) )
U
f (2  : , 5)  4  5  9 .

Now, for the well formed formula, we have:

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 i-   R ( t1, t 2 , ..., t n )

s (  )  ( s ( t1 ), s ( t 2 ), ..., s ( t n ) )  R U .
ii-   (   )  s (  )  T iff s ( )  F .
iii-   (   ) we apply a truth table for s ( ) and s ( ) . The same
as ,  .
iv- Given    x i ( ) , then

 s ( x ) if xi  x
for d U , s id ( x )  
 d if xi  x ,

and in this case, s (  )  T if and only if, for all d U , we have

s id ( )  T .

Example 2.8.
In a language for graph theory, let constants to be out vertices, with
no functions and two binary relations R and P; where R ( u , v ) is interpreted
as: there is an edge from vertex in to vertex v. P (u , v ) if interpreted as u is
connected to v by same directed path. So, for U  { a , b , c , d , e , f } and the
following graph

a b c d e f

Then R ( u , v )  T if and only if

( u , v )  {( a, b ), ( b , c ), ( c , d ), ( d , b ), ( e , f ), ( f , f )}
and P (u , v )  T if and only if
(u , v )  {( a, b ), ( b , c ), (c , d ), ( d , b ), ( e , f ), ( f , f ), ( d , b ),( d , c ),
( a, c ), (a, d ), ( d , d )} .

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Lemma 2.1.
Let  be a well formed formula in some language, and M a structure
for L, then for every assignments s1, s 2 to the universe of M if, for every

variables x that occurs free in  s1 ( x )  s 2 ( x ) , then M   iff M   .

s1 s2

(By M   we mean M satisfies  with s, s (  )  T in M).

s

Corollary 2.1.
If  is a sentence (no free variables in  , then for any s1, s 2 ,

M   iff M   .
s1 s2

Proof:
By generalized induction on the structure of  . (exercise)

Definition 2.4.
 is a logical truth if for every structure for the language of  , and
every assignment s to that structure M   .
s

Example 2.9.
   x Q ( x )  Q ( y ) is a logical truth, Q is one-place relation
symbol. I  is not logical truth.

Let  x Q ( x ) be truth and Q ( y ) be false in M. Then M   x Q ( x ) iff

s

and only if d U
M
s dx (Q ( x ) )  Q ( d ) holds for all d, contradiction to the assumption
M F
that Q ( y ) .

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Example 2.10.
1   y  x R ( x , y )   x  y R ( x , y )
is a logical truth, while
2  x  y R ( x , y )  y x R (x , y )
is not for let the structure M  ( N ;  ) .  2 interpreted as if for every natural

number x, there is a natural number y such that x  y (y here is x itself), then

there exists a natural number y which is equal to each element x.

Definition 2.5.

 logical implies  if for every M, s that make every member of

 gets true, M   .
s

Lemma 2.2.
For every  , ,  ,
  { }   iff   {   } .
Corollary 2.2.
y x R ( x , y )  x y R (x , y ) .

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 Exercises

1- Show that there are no wff of length 2, 3, or 6, but that any other +ve
length in possible,
2- Let  be a wff, let c be the no. of places at which binary connective
symbol s ( ,  , ,  ) occur in  . Let s be the number of places a
which sentence symbols occur in  . Show that, using the induction
principle, s  c  1 .
3- Suppose that  is a wff not containing the negation symbol  .
a- Show that the length of  (i.e. the number of symbols in the
string) is odd.
b- Show that more than a quarter of the symbols are sentence
symbols.
4- Show that if  is a proper initial segment of the wff (   ), then the
number of left brackets in  is greater than the number of right
brackets.
5- Show that neither of the following two formulas logically implies the
other:
i- (A  (B C ) .
ii- ( ( A  ( B  C ) )  ( (  A )  ( (  B )  (  C ) ) ) .
6- Is ( ( ( p  Q )  P )  P ) a tautology?
7- (a) Determine whether or not ( ( P  Q )  (Q  P ) ) is a tautology ?
(b) Determine whether or not ( ( p  Q )  R ) logically implies
( ( P  R )  (Q  R ) ) .

8- Show that  ,    iff    iff   (   ) .

9- Show that the set { , ,  } is not adequate.

10- Translate into logic language:

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 i- Non of my frients are perfect.
ii- Some of my friends are not perfect.
11- Let  ( x ) be the formula:
 ( x  1)   y (  z ( x  y z )  ( y  x )  ( y  1) )
(a) Determine the free variable in  .
(b) If we have the structure M   N ; 0, 1, ,   . Determine

s : V  N such that M   .
s

12- Show that  p ( x )   x q ( x ) is not logically equivalent to

 x ( p (x ) q ( x )) .

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