Definition:Logical Connective

Definition
A logical connective is an object which either modifies a statement, or connects existing statements into a larger, more complicated 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.

Connectives in Propositional Calculus
In propositional logic, the only types of connective one is likely to encounter are unary connectives, which take one statement as an operand, and binary connectives, which take two.

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