There are sixteen binary logical connectives, a sufficiently small
number to encourage obsessive compulsive behavior
(cf. our genetics page).
In English as far as I am aware, we use the following:
and, or, nor
implies, if, unless, and tantamount (in the
form "is tantamount to")
and we get two more using not as binary connective,
and two more, on certain occasions, via "the former" and "the latter".
In addition, not saying anything can possibly be construed as one more.
On the other hand, the identically false connective does not seem to be
easily expressible. The phrase "yes and no" comes to mind, however.
On a relatively generous assessment we achieve twelve of the
sixteen. We seem to be missing the negations of implications and
equivalence, and the ability to manufacture a completely false expression
efficiently.
The question has arisen as to whether all possible connectives are
expressed succinctly in at least one natural language. See
Manin,
pp. 40-41, for some obscure remarks on the topic (djvu format, viewer
required), and see the last link
for some less obscure references.
Page by Stan Burris, link to an automatic theorem prover.
Looks interesting
Speaking of biology, in the International Journal of Quantum
Chemistry we find
this gem
At a casual glance, looks like nonsense, and very possibly is. “the laws of logic, or at least of classical logic and certain generalizations of it, are reducible to evolutionary biology in a standard sense ..."
A considerable body of references on semantics. See, in particular:
Döhmann, Karl. 1974. Die sprachliche Darstellung logischer
Funktoren. In Logik und Sprache, eds. Albert Menne and Gerhard Frey,
28-56.
Berlin, München: Francke Verlag.
And perhaps also
Döhmann, Karl. 1974. Die sprachliche Darstellung der
Modalfunktoren. ibid.,
57-91.
Döhmann, Karl. 1974. Die sprachliche Darstellung der
Quantifikatoren. ibid., 92-118