# Rudolf Carnap an W.V.O. Quine, 8. Juni 1934 Juni 1934

Dear Dr. Quine‚

My book “Logische Syntax”B 1934@Logische Syntax der Sprache, Wien, 1934 is not quite ready. I think it will appear in 2 weeks. Concerning the English translationB 1937@The Logical Syntax of Language, London, 1937 I have come to an agreement with the German publisher; I am sorry I must make the concession that the English edition is not to appear before April 1, 1935. May I ask you for your advice in some terminological questions regarding the English translation?

1. Satz: sentence (I think this is better than ‘proposition’, because the series of signs is meant, not its meaning; and a seconda hsl. sentence advantage: as a syntactical gothic letter I could keep, symbol (gothic S)).

2. (Ein Satz ist) Folge (anderer Sätze): conclusion (consequence?)b hsl. consequence

3. Gehalt: content.c hsl. OK

4. gehaltgleich: equal in content (is there no simple word?)d hsl. equipollent

5. Alloperator: universal (or: general) operator.e hsl. universal quantifier

6. Ausdruck (any series of signs): expression.f hsl. OK

7. Strich (e. g. in ‘o|’): stroke (or would this produce a confusion with Sheffers Stroke ‘|’, which does not occur in my “Syntax”?), dash.g hsl. accent

8. Strichausdruck (e. g. ‘o| | |’): stroke expression (if no danger of confusion with e. g. ‘p|q’ which however does not occur; the advantage would be that I could keep the gothic sign, {symbol}(=St)1 hsl. as in German), dash expression.

9. Spielraum (as in Wittgenstein, p. 98): domain, range.h hsl. range

a-Begriffe:

10. Ableitung: derivation.

11. Beweis: proof (demonstration?)

12. ableitbar: derivable

13. beweisbar: provable (demonstrable?)

14. widerlegbar: disprovablei hsl. refutable

15. entscheidbar: decidablej hsl. resoluble

16. unentscheidbar: indecidablek hsl. irresoluble

f-Begriffe:

17. Folgereihe: conclusion-series (?)

18. Folgeklasse: conclusion-class, class of conclusions.

19. Folge: conclusion (consequence).

20. gültig: valid.

21. widergültig : contra-valid (I think, ‘invalid’ would not do)

22. determiniert: determinate.

23. indeterminiert: indeterminate. 🕮

Explanations: Ableitung and Beweis are certain finite series of sentences. Folgereihe is a series of classes of sentences. The concepts in left column (a-Begriffe) have the meaning of something which can really be done; therefore I think that for (12)-(16) words with the ending ‘-able’ are preferable. The concepts in the right column (f-Begriffe)Formatierung! have a meaning which is in a certain sense absolutistic. For (19): a sentence can be a Folge of an other sentence or of a class of sentences.

24. Zahl - (-Ausdruck, -Zeichen, -Variable): numerical (expression, sign, variable) or numeral?2 Quine underlines ’sign’ and ’numbered’ and connects them with an identity sign (’=’)

25. freie und gebundene Variable: (I would prefer not to take, as RussellP Russell, Bertrand, 1872–1970, brit. Philosoph, in zweiter Ehe verh. mit Dora Russell, ab 1936 verh. mit Patricia Russell, ‘real’ and ‘apparent variable’) free, bound variable.

In your answer you may simply refer to the numbers of the concepts.

With best greetings 2:2

very truly yours
R. Carnap

Brief, msl, 2 Seiten, WQ (Dsl. RC 102-60-10); Briefkopf: msl. Prague, June, 8, 1934.

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