Formal Languages
A formal language consists of a fixed collection of sentences (also called words or formulas, depending on the context) composed from a fixed set of letters or symbols. The inventory from which these letters are taken is called the alphabet over which the language is defined. The essential feature of a formal language is that its syntax can be defined without reference to interpretation. We can determine that (P or Q) is a well-formed formula even without knowing whether it is true or false.
To distinguish the strings of symbols that are in a formal language from arbitrary strings of symbols, the former are sometimes called well-formed formulæ (wffs).
Read more about this topic: Interpretation (logic)
Famous quotes containing the words formal and/or languages:
“I will not let him stir
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To make of him a formal man again.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)