Ground expression

In mathematical logic, a ground term of a formal system is a term that does not contain any free variables.

Similarly, a ground formula is a formula that does not contain any free variables. In first-order logic with identity, the sentence \forall x (x=x) is a ground formula.

A ground expression is a ground term or ground formula.

Examples

Consider the following expressions from first order logic over a signature containing a constant symbol 0 for the number 0, a unary function symbol s for the successor function and a binary function symbol + for addition.

Formal definition

What follows is a formal definition for first-order languages. Let a first-order language be given, with C the set of constant symbols, V the set of (individual) variables, F the set of functional operators, and P the set of predicate symbols.

Ground terms

Ground terms are terms that contain no variables. They may be defined by logical recursion (formula-recursion):

  1. elements of C are ground terms;
  2. If fF is an n-ary function symbol and α1, α2, ..., αn are ground terms, then f1, α2, ..., αn) is a ground term.
  3. Every ground term can be given by a finite application of the above two rules (there are no other ground terms; in particular, predicates cannot be ground terms).

Roughly speaking, the Herbrand universe is the set of all ground terms.

Ground atom

A ground predicate or ground atom or ground literal is an atomic formula all of whose argument terms are ground terms.

If pP is an n-ary predicate symbol and α1, α2, ..., αn are ground terms, then p1, α2, ..., αn) is a ground predicate or ground atom.

Roughly speaking, the Herbrand base is the set of all ground atoms, while a Herbrand interpretation assigns a truth value to each ground atom in the base.

Ground formula

A ground formula or ground clause is a formula without free variables.

Formulas with free variables may be defined by syntactic recursion as follows:

  1. The free variables of an unground atom are all variables occurring in it.
  2. The free variables of ¬p are the same as those of p. The free variables of pq, pq, pq are those free variables of p or free variables of q.
  3. The free variables of \forall x p and \exists x p are the free variables of p except x.

References

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