UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY

School of Liberal Arts and Teacher Education

Balzain Highway, Tuguegarao City 3500

Name of Student:________________________ Year/Section:_____________

Subject:_______________________________ Teacher:______________

MODULE No. 6
TITLE: Mathematical Language and Symbols
INTRODUCTIO Language is important to understand and express one’s ideas, feelings or
N opinion. Language serves as the transmitter of information and
knowledge. It helps to construct social entity. Misunderstanding of one’s
language leads to confusion and misconceptions.
Mathematics has its own language. It was designed so we can write about
things (numbers, sets, functions, etc.) and can do something (add,
subtract, multiply, divide, etc.) on those things. And just like human
languages, mathematics language consists of structural rules governing
the use of symbols representing mathematical objects.
LEARNING At the end of the topic, the students should be able to:
OBJECTIVES a) Discuss the language, symbols and conventions of mathematics.
b) Explain the nature as a language.
c) Perform operations on mathematical expressions correctly.
d) Acknowledge that mathematics is a useful language.

LOGICAL CONNECTIVES

• Mathematical statements may be joined by logical connectives which are used

in combine simple propositions to form compound statements.
• These connectives are CONJUCTTIONS, DISCONJUCTIONS,
IMPLICATION, BOCONDITIONAL, and NEGATION.

TRUTH TABLE: It displays the relationships between the truth values of

propositions. Truth tables are especially valuable in the determination of the
truth values of propositions constructed from simpler propositions.

Let p and q be propositions.

1) CONJUNCTION: The conjunction of the propositions p and q is the

compound statement “p and q” denoted as p ∧q which is, TRUE ONLY
when BOTH p and q are TRUE, otherwise, it is false.

Truth Table for CONJUNCTION

p q p ∧q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F F

2) DISCONJUCTION: The disconjunction of the propositions p and q is the

compound statement “p or q” denoted as p ∨q which is, FALSE ONLY
when BOTH p and q are FALSE, otherwise, it is true.

Truth Table for DISCONJUNCTION

p q p ∨q
T T T
T F T
F T T
F F F

3) NEGATION: The negation of the propositions p is denoted by − p where

the – is the symbol for “not”. The truth value of the negation is ALWAYS
the reverse of the truth value of the original statement.
4)
Truth Table for
NEGATION
p −p
T F
F T
IMPLICATION: The implication of the propositions p and q is the compound
statement “If p, then q” denoted as p →q which is, FALSE ONLY when
p is true and q is false.

Truth Table for IMPLICATION

p q p →q
T T T
T F F
F T T
F F T

5) BICONDITIONAL: The bi-conditional of the propositions p and q is the

compound statement “p if only if q” denoted as p ↔q which is, TRUE
ONLY when BOTH p and q have the SAME TRUTH VALUES.

Truth Table for BICONDITIONAL

p q p ↔q
T T T
T F F
F T F
F F T

OPERATOR PRECEDENCE

−¿ 1

⋀ 2

∨ 3

→ 4

↔ 5