The paper considers the set ML 1 of first-order polymodal formulas the modal operators in which can be applied to subformulas of at most one free variable. Using a mosaic technique, we prove a general satisfiability criterion for formulas in ML 1 , which reduces the modal satisfiability to the classical one. The criterion is then used to single out a number of new, in a sense optimal, decidable fragments of various modal predicate logics.

The guarded fragment with transitive guards, [GF+TG], is an extension of the guarded fragment of first-order logic, GF, in which certain predicates are required to be transitive, transitive predicate letters appear only in guards of the quantifiers and the equality symbol may appear everywhere. We prove that the decision problem for [GF+TG] is decidable. Moreover, we show that the problem is in 2E. This result is optimal since the satisfiability problem for GF is 2E-complete 1719–1742). We also show that the (...) satisfiability problem for two-variable [GF+TG] is N-hard in contrast to GF with bounded number of variables for which the satisfiability problem is E-complete. (shrink)

We prove that the positive fragment of first-order intuitionistic logic in the language with two individual variables and a single monadic predicate letter, without functional symbols, constants, and equality, is undecidable. This holds true regardless of whether we consider semantics with expanding or constant domains. We then generalise this result to intervals \ and \, where QKC is the logic of the weak law of the excluded middle and QBL and QFL are first-order counterparts of Visser’s basic and formal logics, (...) respectively. We also show that, for most “natural” first-order modal logics, the two-variable fragment with a single monadic predicate letter, without functional symbols, constants, and equality, is undecidable, regardless of whether we consider semantics with expanding or constant domains. These include all sublogics of QKTB, QGL, and QGrz—among them, QK, QT, QKB, QD, QK4, and QS4. (shrink)

Satisfaction systems and reductions between them are presented as an appropriate context for analyzing the satisfiability and the validity problems. The notion of reduction is generalized in order to cope with the meet-combination of logics. Reductions between satisfaction systems induce reductions between the respective satisfiability problems and (under mild conditions) also between their validity problems. Sufficient conditions are provided for relating satisfiability problems to validity problems. Reflection results for decidability in the presence of reductions are established. The validity problem in (...) the meet-combination is proved to be decidable whenever the validity problem for the components are decidable. Several examples are discussed, namely, involving modal and intuitionistic logics, as well as the meet-combination of modal logic and intuitionistic logic. (shrink)

We consider the two‐variable fragment of first‐order logic with counting, subject to the stipulation that a single distinguished binary predicate be interpreted as an equivalence. We show that the satisfiability and finite satisfiability problems for this logic are both NExpTime‐complete. We further show that the corresponding problems for two‐variable first‐order logic with counting and two equivalences are both undecidable.

By a fragment of a natural language we mean a subset of thatlanguage equipped with semantics which translate its sentences intosome formal system such as first-order logic. The familiar conceptsof satisfiability and entailment can be defined for anysuch fragment in a natural way. The question therefore arises, for anygiven fragment of a natural language, as to the computational complexityof determining satisfiability and entailment within that fragment. Wepresent a series of fragments of English for which the satisfiabilityproblem is polynomial, NP-complete, EXPTIME-complete,NEXPTIME-complete (...) and undecidable. Thus, this paper represents a casestudy in how to approach the problem of determining the logicalcomplexity of various natural language constructions. In addition, wedraw some general conclusions about the relationship between naturallanguage and formal logic. (shrink)

Controlled languages are regimented fragments of natural languagedesigned to make the processing of natural language more efficient andreliable. This paper defines a controlled language, E2V, whose principalgrammatical resources include determiners, relative clauses, reflexivesand pronouns. We provide a formal syntax and semantics for E2V, in whichanaphoric ambiguities are resolved in a linguistically natural way. Weshow that the expressive power of E2V is equal to that of thetwo-variable fragment of first-order logic. It follows that the problemof determining the satisfiability of a set (...) of E2V sentences is NEXPTIMEcomplete. We show that E2V can be extended in various ways withoutcompromising these complexity results; however, relaxing our policy onanaphora resolution renders the satisfiability problem for E2Vundecidable. Finally, we argue that our results have a bearing on thebroader philosophical issue of the relationship between natural andformal languages. (shrink)

The satisfiability problem for the two-variable fragment of first-order logic is investigated over finite and infinite linearly ordered, respectively wellordered domains, as well as over finite and infinite domains in which one or several designated binary predicates are interpreted as arbitrary wellfounded relations. It is shown that FO 2 over ordered, respectively wellordered, domains or in the presence of one well-founded relation, is decidable for satisfiability as well as for finite satisfiability. Actually the complexity of these decision problems is essentially (...) the same as for plain unconstrained FO 2 , namely non-deterministic exponential time. In contrast FO 2 becomes undecidable for satisfiability and for finite satisfiability, if a sufficiently large number of predicates are required to be interpreted as orderings, wellorderings, or as arbitrary wellfounded relations. This undecidability result also entails the undecidability of the natural common extension of FO 2 and computation tree logic CTL. (shrink)

We consider infinitary logic with only two variable symbols, both with and without counting quantifiers, i.e. L2 L∞ω2 and C2 L∞ω2mεω. The main result is that finite relational structures admit canonization with respect to L2 and C2: there are polynomial time com putable functors mapping finite relational structures to unique representatives of their equivalence class with respect to indistinguishability in either of these logics. In fact we exhibit in verses to the natural invariants that characterize structures up to L2- or (...) C2-equivalence, respectively. As a corollary we obtain recursive presentations of the classes of all boolean queries that are closed with respect to L2- or C2-equivalence. (shrink)

This paper adds comparative adjectives to two systems of syllogistic logic. The comparatives are interpreted by transitive and irreflexive relations on the underlying domain. The main point is to obtain sound and complete axiomatizations of the valid formulas in the logics.

The aim of this paper is to give a new proof for the decidability and finite model property of first-order logic with two variables (without function symbols), using a combinatorial theorem due to Herwig. The results are proved in the framework of polyadic equality set algebras of dimension two (Pse 2 ). The new proof also shows the known results that the universal theory of Pse 2 is decidable and that every finite Pse 2 can be represented on a finite (...) base. Since the class Cs 2 of cylindric set algebras of dimension 2 forms a reduct of Pse 2 , these results extend to Cs 2 as well. (shrink)

We propose an original use of techniques from random graph theory to find a Monadic ∑ 1 1 sentence without an asymptotic probability. Our result implies that the 0-1 law fails for the logics ∑ 1 1 and ∑ 1 1 . Therefore we complete the classification of first-order prefix classes with or without equality, according to the existence of the 0-1 law for the corresponding ∑ 1 1 fragment. In addition, our counterexample can be viewed as a single explanation (...) of the failure of the 0-1 law of all the fragments of existential second-order logic for which the failure is already known. (shrink)

We prove that the two-variable fragment of first-order intuitionistic logic is undecidable, even without constants and equality. We also show that the two-variable fragment of a quantified modal logic L with expanding first-order domains is undecidable whenever there is a Kripke frame for L with a point having infinitely many successors (such are, in particular, the first-order extensions of practically all standard modal logics like K, K4, GL, S4, S5, K4.1, S4.2, GL.3, etc.). For many quantified modal logics, including those (...) in the standard nomenclature above, even the monadic two-variable fragments turn out to be undecidable. (shrink)

We consider a new fragment of first-order logic with two variables. This logic is defined over interval structures. It constitutes unary predicates, a binary predicate and a function symbol. Considering such a fragment of first-order logic is motivated by defining a general framework for event-based interval temporal logics. In this paper, we present a sound, complete and terminating decision procedure for this logic. We show that the logic is decidable, and provide a NEXPTIME complexity bound for satisfiability. This result shows (...) that even a simple decidable fragment of first-order logic has NEXPTIME complexity. (shrink)

We identify the computational complexity of the satisfiability problem for FO 2, the fragment of first-order logic consisting of all relational first-order sentences with at most two distinct variables. Although this fragment was shown to be decidable a long time ago, the computational complexity of its decision problem has not been pinpointed so far. In 1975 Mortimer proved that FO 2 has the finite-model property, which means that if an FO 2 -sentence is satisfiable, then it has a finite model. (...) Moreover, Mortimer showed that every satisfiable FO 2 -sentence has a model whose size is at most doubly exponential in the size of the sentence. In this paper, we improve Mortimer's bound by one exponential and show that every satisfiable FO 2 -sentence has a model whose size is at most exponential in the size of the sentence. As a consequence, we establish that the satisfiability problem for FO 2 is NEXPTIME-complete. (shrink)

We study first-order logic with two variables FO² and establish a small substructure property. Similar to the small model property for FO² we obtain an exponential size bound on embedded substructures, relative to a fixed surrounding structure that may be infinite. We apply this technique to analyse the satisfiability problem for FO² under constraints that require several binary relations to be interpreted as equivalence relations. With a single equivalence relation, FO² has the finite model property and is complete for non-deterministic (...) exponential time, just as for plain FO² With two equivalence relations, FO² does not have the finite model property, but is shown to be decidable via a construction of regular models that admit finite descriptions even though they may necessarily be infinite. For three or more equivalence relations, FO² is undecidable. (shrink)

By a fragment of a natural language, we understand a collection of sentences forming a naturally delineated subset of that language and equipped with a semantics commanding the general assent of its native speakers. By the semantic complexity of such a fragment, we understand the computational complexity of deciding whether any given set of sentences in that fragment represents a logically possible situation. In earlier papers by the first author, the semantic complexity of various fragments of English involving at most (...) transitive verbs was investigated. The present paper considers various fragments of English involving ditransitive verbs and determines their semantic complexity. (shrink)

In this paper, we introduce a new fragment of the first-order temporal language, called the monodic fragment, in which all formulas beginning with a temporal operator have at most one free variable. We show that the satisfiability problem for monodic formulas in various linear time structures can be reduced to the satisfiability problem for a certain fragment of classical first-order logic. This reduction is then used to single out a number of decidable fragments of first-order temporal logics and of two-sorted (...) first-order logics in which one sort is intended for temporal reasoning. Besides standard first-order time structures, we consider also those that have only finite first-order domains, and extend the results mentioned above to temporal logics of finite domains. We prove decidability in three different ways: using decidability of monadic second-order logic over the intended flows of time, by an explicit analysis of structures with natural numbers time, and by a composition method that builds a model from pieces in finitely many steps. (shrink)

In an article dating back in 1992, Kosta Došen initiated a project of modal translations in substructural logics, aiming at generalising the well-known Gödel–McKinsey–Tarski translation of intuitionistic logic into S4. Došen's translation worked well for (variants of) BCI and stronger systems (BCW, BCK), but not for systems below BCI. Dropping structural rules results in logic systems without distribution. In this article, we show, via translation, that every substructural (indeed, every non-distributive) logic is a fragment of a corresponding sorted, residuated (multi) (...) modal logic. At the conceptual and philosophical level, the translation provides a classical interpretation of the meaning of the logical operators of various non-distributive propositional calculi. Technically, it allows for an effortless transfer of results, such as compactness and the Löwenheim-Skolem property and it opens up new directions for deducing properties of substructural logic systems by establishing appropriate transfer theorems. (shrink)

ABSTRACTCorrespondence and Shalqvist theories for Modal Logics rely on the simple observation that a relational structure is at the same time the basis for a model of modal logic and for a model of first-order logic with a binary predicate for the accessibility relation. If the underlying set of the frame is split into two components,, and, then frames are at the same time the basis for models of non-distributive lattice logic and of two-sorted, residuated modal logic. This suggests that (...) a reduction of the first to the latter may be possible, encoding Positive Lattice Logic as a fragment of Two-Sorted, Residuated Modal Logic. The reduction is analogous to the well-known Gödel-McKinsey-Tarski translation of Intuitionistic Logic into the S4 system of normal modal logic. In this article, we carry out this reduction in detail and we derive some properties of PLL from corresponding properties of First-Order Logic. The reduction we present is extendible to the case of lattices with operators, making use of recent results by this author on the relational representation of normal lattice expansions. (shrink)

In the propositional modal treatment of two-variable first-order logic equality is modelled by a ‘diagonal’ constant, interpreted in square products of universal frames as the identity relation. Here we study the decision problem of products of two arbitrary modal logics equipped with such a diagonal. As the presence or absence of equality in two-variable first-order logic does not influence the complexity of its satisfiability problem, one might expect that adding a diagonal to product logics in general is similarly harmless. We (...) show that this is far from being the case, and there can be quite a big jump in complexity, even from decidable to the highly undecidable. Our undecidable logics can also be viewed as new fragments of first-order logic where adding equality changes a decidable fragment to undecidable. We prove our results by a novel application of counter machine problems. While our formalism apparently cannot force reliable counter machine computations directly, the presence of a unique diagonal in the models makes it possible to encode both lossy and insertion-error computations, for the same sequence of instructions. We show that, given such a pair of faulty computations, it is then possible to reconstruct a reliable run from them. (shrink)

Throughout the development of finite model theory, the fragments of first-order logic with only finitely many variables have played a central role. This survey gives an introduction to the theory of finite variable logics and reports on recent progress in the area.For each k ≥ 1 we let Lk be the fragment of first-order logic consisting of all formulas with at most k variables. The logics Lk are the simplest finite-variable logics. Later, we are going to consider infinitary variants and (...) extensions by so-called counting quantifiers.Finite variable logics have mostly been studied on finite structures. Like the whole area of finite model theory, they have interesting model theoretic, complexity theoretic, and combinatorial aspects. For finite structures, first-order logic is often too expressive, since each finite structure can be characterized up to isomorphism by a single first-order sentence, and each class of finite structures that is closed under isomorphism can be characterized by a first-order theory. The finite variable fragments seem to be promising candidates with the right balance between expressive power and weakness for a model theory of finite structures. This may have motivated Poizat [67] to collect some basic model theoretic properties of the Lk. Around the same time Immerman [45] showed that important complexity classes such as polynomial time or polynomial space can be characterized as collections of all classes of finite structures definable by uniform sequences of first-order formulas with a fixed number of variables and varying quantifier-depth. (shrink)

We identify the computational complexity of the satisfiability problem for FO 2 , the fragment of first-order logic consisting of all relational first-order sentences with at most two distinct variables. Although this fragment was shown to be decidable a long time ago, the computational complexity of its decision problem has not been pinpointed so far. In 1975 Mortimer proved that FO 2 has the finite-model property, which means that if an FO 2 -sentence is satisfiable, then it has a finite (...) model. Moreover, Mortimer showed that every satisfiable FO 2 -sentence has a model whose size is at most doubly exponential in the size of the sentence. In this paper, we improve Mortimer's bound by one exponential and show that every satisfiable FO 2 -sentence has a model whose size is at most exponential in the size of the sentence. As a consequence, we establish that the satisfiability problem for FO 2 is NEXPTIME-complete. (shrink)

Guarded fragments of first-order logic were recently introduced by Andreka, van Benthem and Nemeti; they consist of relational first-order formulae whose quantifiers are appropriately relativized by atoms. These fragments are interesting because they extend in a natural way many propositional modal logics, because they have useful model-theoretic properties and especially because they are decidable classes that avoid the usual syntactic restrictions (on the arity of relation symbols, the quantifier pattern or the number of variables) of almost all other known decidable (...) fragments of first-order logic. Here, we investigate the computational complexity of these fragments. We prove that the satisfiability problems for the guarded fragment (GF) and the loosely guarded fragment (LGF) of first-order logic are complete for deterministic double exponential time. For the subfragments that have only a bounded number of variables or only relation symbols of bounded arity, satisfiability is EXPTIME-complete. We further establish a tree model property for both the guarded fragment and the loosely guarded fragment, and give a proof of the finite model property of the guarded fragment. It is also shown that some natural, modest extensions of the guarded fragments are undecidable. (shrink)

We show that the existential preservation theorem fails for two-variable first-order logic FO2. It is known that for all k ≥ 3, FOk does not have an existential preservation theorem, so this settles the last open case, answering a question of Andreka, van Benthem, and Németi. In contrast, we prove that the homomorphism preservation theorem holds for FO2.

In 1952, Heinrich Scholz published a question in The Journal of Symbolic Logic asking for a characterization of spectra, i.e., sets of natural numbers that are the cardinalities of finite models of first order sentences. Günter Asser in turn asked whether the complement of a spectrum is always a spectrum. These innocent questions turned out to be seminal for the development of finite model theory and descriptive complexity. In this paper we survey developments over the last 50-odd years pertaining to (...) the spectrum problem. Our presentation follows conceptual developments rather than the chronological order. Originally a number theoretic problem, it has been approached by means of recursion theory, resource bounded complexity theory, classification by complexity of the defining sentences, and finally by means of structural graph theory. Although Scholz' question was answered in various ways, Asser's question remains open. (shrink)

This work is divided in two papers (Part I and Part II). In Part I, we introduced the class of Rare-logics for which the set of terms indexing the modal operators are hierarchized in two levels: the set of Boolean terms and the set of terms built upon the set of Boolean terms. By investigating different algebraic properties satisfied by the models of the Rare-logics, reductions for decidability were established by faithfully translating the Rare-logics into more standard modal logics (some (...) of them contain the universal modal operator).In Part II, we push forward the results from Part I. For Rare-logics with nominals (present at the level of formulae and at the level of modal expressions), we show that the constructions from Part I can be extended although it is technically more involved. We also characterize a class of standard modal logics for which the universal modal operator can be eliminated as far as satifiability is concerned. Although the previous results have a semantic flavour, we are also able to define proof systems for Rare-logics from existing proof systems for the corresponding standard modal logics. Last, but not least, decidability results for Rare-logics are established uniformly, in particular for information logics derived from rough set theory. (shrink)

Ash's functions Nσ ,k count the number of k -equivalence classes of σ -structures of size n . Some conditions on their asymptotic behavior imply the long standing spectrum conjecture. We present a new condition which is equivalent to this conjecture and we discriminate some easy and difficult particular cases.

In this paper, we investigate the expressiveness of the variety of propositional interval neighborhood logics , we establish their decidability on linearly ordered domains and some important subclasses, and we prove the undecidability of a number of extensions of PNL with additional modalities over interval relations. All together, we show that PNL form a quite expressive and nearly maximal decidable fragment of Halpern–Shoham’s interval logic HS.

Contact Logics provide a natural framework for representing and reasoning about regions in several areas of computer science. In this paper, we focus our attention on reasoning methods for Contact Logics and address the satisfiability problem and the unifiability problem. Firstly, we give sound and complete tableaux-based decision procedures in Contact Logics and we obtain new results about the decidability/complexity of the satisfiability problem in these logics. Secondly, we address the computability of the unifiability problem in Contact Logics and we (...) obtain new results about the unification type of the unifiability problem in these logics. (shrink)

Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903–30) made seminal contributions to philosophy, mathematics and economics. Whilst he was acknowledged as a genius by his contemporaries, some of his most important ideas were not appreciated until decades later; now better appreciated, they continue to bear an influence upon contemporary philosophy. His historic significance was to usher in a new phase of analytic philosophy, which initially built upon the logical atomist doctrines of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, raising their ideas to a new level of (...) sophistication, but ultimately he became their successor rather than remain a mere acolyte. (shrink)

Guarded fragments of first-order logic were recently introduced by Andreka, van Benthem and Nemeti; they consist of relational first-order formulae whose quantifiers are appropriately relativized by atoms. These fragments are interesting because they extend in a natural way many propositional modal logics, because they have useful model-theoretic properties and especially because they are decidable classes that avoid the usual syntactic restrictions of almost all other known decidable fragments of first-order logic. Here, we investigate the computational complexity of these fragments. We (...) prove that the satisfiability problems for the guarded fragment and the loosely guarded fragment of first-order logic are complete for deterministic double exponential time. For the subfragments that have only a bounded number of variables or only relation symbols of bounded arity, satisfiability is EXPTIME-complete. We further establish a tree model property for both the guarded fragment and the loosely guarded fragment, and give a proof of the finite model property of the guarded fragment. It is also shown that some natural, modest extensions of the guarded fragments are undecidable. (shrink)

En este artículo se sintetiza una visión moderna de las lógicas modales y temporales. En vez de dar una motivación histórica, el paper presenta estas lógicas en relación con ciertos fragmentos de la lógica de primer orden que poseen propiedades interesantes. Esta visión de la lógica es seductora porque nos permite diseñar lenguajes a medida, es decir, optimizados para una tarea específica.