  Swierczkowski's Lemma - as it is usually formulated - asserts that if f is an
at least quaternary operation on a finite set A and every operation obtained
from f by identifying a pair of variables is a projection, then f is a
semiprojection. We generalize this lemma in various ways. First, it is extended
to B-valued functions on A instead of operations on A and to essentially at
most unary functions instead of projections. Then we characterize the arity gap
of functions of small arities in terms of quasi-arity, which in turn provides a
further generalization of Swierczkowski's Lemma. Moreover, we explicitly
classify all pseudo-Boolean functions according to their arity gap. Finally, we
present a general characterization of the arity gaps of B-valued functions on
arbitrary finite sets A.

Combinatorics