Re:Common Errors in English Usage
by andrew1 on Friday October 01, 2010 @03:20AM
(#1746316)
You could say the same of pretty much everything. Just because something isn't perfect or provable doesn't mean it can't be useful. Just look at this as a guide to English grammar at the date it was written.
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Actually, lots of things are formal. Statements in mathematics, assuming all parties agree on notation and convention, is formal. It's quite easy to decide if, for example, a statement in first-order logic is well-formed (correctness is another issue altogether, and as we know no formal axiomatic system can be consistent and complete).
To me, it's a contradiction to say "x isn't a formal language with a decision procedure for well-formedness" and "A is/isn't a well-formed statement in x."