Sumterms, Summands, Sumtuples, and Sums and the Meta-Arithmetic of Summation

Abstract

Sumterms are introduced as syntactic entities, and sumtuples are introduced as semantic entities. Equipped with these concepts a new description is obtained of the notion of a sum as (the name for) a role which can be played by a number. Sumterm splitting operators are introduced and it is argued that without further precautions the presence of these operators gives rise to an instance of the so-called sum splitting paradox. A survey of solutions to the sum splitting paradox is given.