Definition:Binding Priority

The binding priority, or precedence, is the convention defining the order of binding strength of the individual connectives in a [Definition:Compound Statement|compound logical or mathematical statement]].

Binding priorities can be overridden by inserting parentheses in appropriate places. Parentheses always take priority over conventional binding priorities.

A higher precedence is the same thing as a tighter binding priority.

Logical Connectives
The convention which is almost universally used is:


 * $$\lnot$$ binds more tightly than $$\lor$$ and $$\land$$;
 * $$\lor$$ and $$\land$$ bind more tightly than $$\Longrightarrow$$.

Note that there is no overall convention defining which of $$\land$$ and $$\lor$$ bears a higher binding priority, and therefore we are going to assume they have equal priority. Because of this fact, expressions such as $$p \land q \lor r$$ can not be interpreted unambiguously, and we brackets must be used to determine the exact priorities which are to be used to interpret particular statements which may otherwise be ambiguous, and therefore ill-formed.