# Normal Forms for First-Order Logic

#### Example Formula

We will look at the language where

• is relation symbol of arity one
• is relation symbol of arity two
• is a constant
• is a function symbol of two arguments

Consider this formula in :

We are interested in checking the validity of this formula (is it true in all interpretations). We will check the satisfiability of the negation of this formula (does it have a model):

We will first consider a range of techniques that allow us to convert such formula to simpler normal forms.

## Negation Normal Form

In negation normal form of formula the negation applies only to atomic formulas.

Every FOL formula can be transformed in NNF using the formulas used for the same purpose in PL extended by two new ones :

## Prenex Normal Form

Prenex normal form has all quantifiers in front.

Prenex normal form (PNF) is a formula of the form

where and has no quantifiers.

Any FOL formula can be transformed to PNF. First convert it to NNF, then if several quantified variables or free variables have the same name rename them to fresh names, and finaly use the following formulas :

## Skolem Normal Form

Let be a predicate with two arguments.

Note that

but converse implication does not hold (take as relation or on natural numbers).

In general, we have this theorem:

where is a function.

Proof:

(): For each we take as the witness .

(): We know there exists a witness for each . We define to map to one such witness . (To prove that this is possible requires axiom of choice from set theory.)

End Proof.

Note also that satisfiability of formula expresses existential quantification over function symbols and relation symbols.

Definition: Skolemization is the result of applying this transformation

to the entire PNF formula to eliminate all existential quantifiers. Above, is a fresh function symbol. Denote the result of applying skolemization to formula .

Lemma: A set of formulas in prenex normal form is satisfiable iff the set is satisfiable.

#### SNF for Example

Note: it is better to do PNF and SNF for each conjunct independently.

## CNF and Sets of Clauses

Let be . Convert to conjunctive normal form . Then is equivalent to

where each is a disjunction of first-order literals. We call (first-order) clause. For a given formula , denote the set of such clauses in conjunctive normal form of by .

We omit universal quantifiers because all variables are universally quantified. We use a convention to denote variables by and constants by .

Theorem: The set is satisfiable iff the set

is satisfiable.

#### Another Example: Irreflexive Dense Linear Orders

Let be binary relation (“strictly less”). We consider the following axioms for irreflexive partial order that is total and dense:

Let us find clauses for these axioms :