Abstract: In this chapter, we review the very general concept of language as the medium used by humans, but also by mechanical devices, to communicate. Every language is defined by a syntax, which specifies how its sentences can be composed, and by a semantics, which associates with every sentence a meaning. Language syntax and semantics can be defined informally, as it happens with natural languages, or formally, by exploiting the precision and rigor of mathematics, as it happens with artificial languages such as programming languages and the formalisms that will be presented in this book. Languages are also distinguished into operational ones – more suitable to describe system’s structure and behavior – and descriptive ones – oriented towards specifying system’s requirements. Mathematical logic is a fundamental descriptive formalism that will be thoroughly exploited in the book. The final part of this chapter introduces two fundamental logic formalisms, namely propositional calculus and predicate calculus, which are a prerequisite to most other logic formalisms.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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