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When using words like “unique” and “any”, particularly in technical communication, I sometimes find myself deliberating over which definition and tenor is the most natural, or which alternative phrasing might be clearer even if less succinct or accessible.

Does “Every boy has a unique shirt” mean that

  • no two boys have the same shirt,

or does it mean that

  • no two shirts belong to the same boy?

I suppose the former; if so, then does the latter mean “Every shirt belongs to a unique boy”?

ryang
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2 Answers2

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Closely approximating the English is the following logical formula $$\forall b \exists!s P(s,b)$$ where $b$ is a boy and $s$ is a shirt, and $P(s,b)$ means that s belongs to b. This means that for each boy there is one and only one shirt that belongs to him. If you want to say that no shirt belongs to two boys you would say $$\forall s\exists! b P(s,b),$$ and the natural language approximation would be "Every shirt belongs to a unique boy."

  • By the way this last sentence is the same as yours, but we are taking them to mean different things. – Cheerful Parsnip Aug 04 '12 at 11:05
  • In natural language, how would you use the word "unique" to write that "Every linear transformation has exactly one matrix representation?" (A matrix may represent an infinite number of linear transformations, but leave this information or its implications out.) – ryang Aug 04 '12 at 11:10
  • You might say something like "Every linear transformation is represented by a unique matrix." (Even though this is false. :)) – Cheerful Parsnip Aug 04 '12 at 11:20
  • Yes, my first instinct was to write that too. ("Every LT, with respect to chosen bases in the domain and codomain, has a unique matrix representation.") Then I wavered and decided that the reader would as well interpret that to mean no two LT (with respect to the same bases) share the same representation, which is patently false! – ryang Aug 04 '12 at 13:06
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  • Actually, “no shirt belongs to two boys” (i.e., “no two boys share the same shirt”) means that every shirt belongs to at most one boy instead of that every shirt belongs to exactly one boy; as such, its formalisation is $$∀s;∃b_1;∀b_2;\big(P(s,b_2){\implies}b_2{=}b_1\Big)$$ (equivalently: $∀s,b_1,b_2;\big(P(s,b_1)∧P(s,b_2){\implies}b_2{=}b_1\Big)$) instead of $$\forall s\exists! b P(s,b).$$ 2. Summarising your Answer: your preferred interpretation of ‘unique’ is ‘exactly one’.
  • – ryang Apr 11 '22 at 16:26