Harald Weinrich, The linguistics of lying and other essays. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005, Pp. vii, 148. Pb. $18.95.

This book examines the nature of lying by considering the correlation between language and thought, language and reality, and language and context. In the five essays included, Weinrich relies on literary and philosophical works from Aristotle to Zola to propose his argument that linguistics can examine how language hides thoughts and how truth becomes distorted into lie. He weaves a sophisticated philosophy of the ways in which language is true or untrue, and the mechanisms of linguistics, literature, and life that signal these truths or untruths.