Non-Symmetric Relation Names

Is it possible to name non-symmetric relations? If non-symmetric relations had distinct converses, then the difficulty of picking out and distinguishing a non-symmetric relation from its converses would plausibly present an insuperable obstacle to introducing names for them. But we argue that if non-symmetric relations lack converses, then the aforementioned difficulty does not arise. Moreover, we argue, at the semantic level, that English or modest extensions of English have the expressive resources to name non-symmetric relations whose adicity is greater than 2. Van Inwagen’s case that it is impossible to name non-symmetric relations serves as our foil

Obstacle · Proper noun · Relation (database) · Semantic relation · Semantics (computer science) · Speech act · Logic, Reasoning, and Knowledge