English

Andrews' Type Theory with Undefinedness

Logic 2014-07-01 v1 Logic in Computer Science

Abstract

Q0{\cal Q}_0 is an elegant version of Church's type theory formulated and extensively studied by Peter B. Andrews. Like other traditional logics, Q0{\cal Q}_0 does not admit undefined terms. The "traditional approach to undefinedness" in mathematical practice is to treat undefined terms as legitimate, nondenoting terms that can be components of meaningful statements. Q0u{\cal Q}^{\rm u}_{0} is a modification of Andrews' type theory Q0{\cal Q}_0 that directly formalizes the traditional approach to undefinedness. This paper presents Q0u{\cal Q}^{\rm u}_{0} and proves that the proof system of Q0u{\cal Q}^{\rm u}_{0} is sound and complete with respect to its semantics which is based on Henkin-style general models. The paper's development of Q0u{\cal Q}^{\rm u}_{0} closely follows Andrews' development of Q0{\cal Q}_0 to clearly delineate the differences between the two systems.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1406.7492,
  title  = {Andrews' Type Theory with Undefinedness},
  author = {William M. Farmer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.7492},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

This research was supported by NSERC. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1406.6706

R2 v1 2026-06-22T04:50:22.781Z