We show that Craig’s trick is not valid for the Lambek calculus, i.e. there exists such a recursively enumerable theory (set of sequents) over the Lambek calculus, which does not have a decidable axiomatization. We show that Lambek’s non-emptiness restriction (the constraint that left-hand sides of all sequents should be non-empty) and an infinite set of variables are crucial for the failure of Craig’s trick. We also present a non-sequential formulation of the product-free fragment of the Lambek calculus and show its equivalence to the sequential one.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jigpal/jzy037
Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/record/display.url?origin=inward&eid=2-s2.0-85068598415
S. Kuznetsov, V. Lugovaya, A. Ryzhova. Craig's trick and a non-sequential system for the Lambek calculus and its fragments. Logic Journal of the IGPL, 27:3 (2019), 252–266.