Our notation for the logical operators “and” and “or” is what’s called infix notation, where the operator is written between its operands. Alternatives are prefix notation, where it’s written before the operands, or postfix notation, where it’s written after them. The prefix version of “Probability and Statistics or Algebra and Geometry” is
(or (and Probability Statistics) (and Algebra Geometry))while the postfix version is
((Probability Statistics and) (Algebra Geometry and) or)The prefix version may look familiar if you’ve ever seen any of the many variants of the programming language LISP, the second oldest programming language still in regular use.
The parentheses show the structure of the subphrases but aren’t really necessary. There is no other way to split these statements. With prefix or postfix notation we also don’t need precedence rules.