Definition:Logical Connective

Definition
A logical connective is an object which either modifies a statement, or combines existing statements into a new statement, called a compound statement.

It is almost universal to identify a logical connective with the symbol representing it.

Thus, logical connective may also, particularly in symbolic logic, be used to refer to that symbol, rather than speaking of a connective symbol separately.

A connective can be considered as being an operator and, in correspondence therewith, is considered to have an arity.

This arity is the number of statements the logical connective combines into a single compound statement.

Also defined as
Some sources reserve the term logical connective for what on is defined as a binary logical connective, on the grounds that a unary logical connective does not actually "connect" anything. However, this is a trivial distinction which can serve only to confuse.

Also known as
Other terms for logical connective which may be encountered include:


 * Connective
 * Propositional connective
 * Sentential connective
 * Logical constant
 * Logical operator
 * Sentence-forming operator
 * Boolean operator (in the context of mathematical logic)
 * Conjunction (as used in natural language - mathematics has a more specialised use for the term conjunction, however)

Also see

 * Operation


 * Connective of Propositional Calculus