Analysis and Synthesis Interdependent Operations in Chemical Language and Practice

Chemical symbolism provides the linguistic representations for ex- perimental research. It is based on an empirical set of formal (syntactic) rules that allows operations on formulas and reaction equations. The semantic in- terpretation of formulas and reaction equations links these operations to ex- perimental analysis and synthesis. These syntactic and semantic aspects of chemical symbolism guide as well as limit chemical research. A better under- standing of these aspects of chemical language allows chemists to rationalize novel approaches to chemical research ( e.g. combinatorial chemistry) and pos- sibly exploit the vast area of 'surprise discoveries'.