Suppose that L(x,y) means that x loves y. I am to write symbolically, "For every person that loves someone, there exists a unique person that loves them" I feel like there are a hundred different ways to answer this question! The closest I can get is AxEyL(x,y) E!cL(c,x) I feel as if there should be an amplification arrow in between the two though..

Lina Neal

Lina Neal

Answered question

2022-09-04

Suppose that L(x,y) means that x loves y. I am to write symbolically, "For every person that loves someone, there exists a unique person that loves them" I feel like there are a hundred different ways to answer this question! The closest I can get is AxEyL(x,y) E!cL(c,x) I feel as if there should be an amplification arrow in between the two though..

Answer & Explanation

Koen Henson

Koen Henson

Beginner2022-09-05Added 17 answers

Step 1
First of all, I would use z instead of c, since c is typically used for a specific individual, and you want to use a variable. Also, this z will need to love y as well as x.
But that is not the biggest issue with your attempt.
The sentence you are trying to symbolize is what is called a 'donkey sentence', so named after the following sentence:
'every farmer who owns a donkey beats it'
If you try to symbolize this, your first attempt might well be something like:
x ( ( F a r m e r ( x ) y ( D o n k e y ( y ) O w n s ( x , y ) ) ) B e a t s ( x , y ) )
The problem, however, is that in the Beats(x,y) part, the y is free, so this isn't right.
Indeed, in order to make reference to the donkey owned by the farmer, it turns out we need to paraphrase this sentence to: 'for any farmer and any donkey owned by that farmer, the farmer beats the donkey.
The same is true for your sentence. Here, we are tempted to do something like:
x ( y L o v e s ( x , y ) ! z ( L o v e s ( z , x ) L o v e s ( z , y ) ) )
Step 2
And we have the exact same problem: y is free in Loves(z,y)
So, we need to rephrase this sentence as:
'For any person and any person loved by that person, there is a unique person that loves those two people'
So that becomes:
x y ( L o v e s ( x , y ) ! z ( L o v e s ( z , x ) L o v e s ( z , y ) ) )

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