A General (Uniform) Relational Semantics for Sentential Logics

Abstract: We present a general relational semantics framework which, by varying the axiomatization and components of the relational structures, provides a uniform semantics for sentential logics, classical and non-classical alike. The approach we take rests on a generalization of the Jónsson-Tarski representation (and duality) for Boolean algebras with operators to the cases of posets, semilattices, or bounded lattices (with, or without distribution) with quasi-operators. Completeness proofs rely on a choice-free construction of canonical extensions for the algebras in the quasivarieties of the equivalent algebraic semantics of the logics. Correspondence results for axiomatic extensions of the logics of implication that we study rely on a fully abstract translation into their modal companions and they are calculated using a generalized Sahlqvist - van Benthem algorithm.