The Liar

Bringing together powerful new tools from set theory and the philosophy of language, this book proposes a solution to one of the few unresolved paradoxes from antiquity, the Paradox of the Liar. Treating truth as a property of propositions, not sentences, the authors model two distinct conceptions of propositions: one based on the standard notion used by Bertrand Russell, among others, and the other based on J.L. Austin's work on truth. Comparing these two accounts, the authors show that while the Russellian conception of the relation between sentences, propositions, and truth is crucially flawed in limiting cases, the Austinian perspective has fruitful applications to the analysis of semantic paradox. In the course of their study of a language admitting circular reference and containing its own truth predicate, Barwise and Etchemendy also develop a wide range of model-theoretic techniques--based on a new set-theoretic tool, Peter Aczel's theory of hypersets--that open up new avenues in logical and formal semantics.

A mother must protect her daughter from an unknown evil in this dark paranormal thriller from the author of the Ben Whittle Investigations. During a visit to a local theatre, four-year-old Chloe Hollis becomes hysterical. But her mother, Mel, doesn’t realise that this is just the beginning of the nightmare. In the coming weeks, Chloe talks of the Tall Man—of death. At her wit's end, Mel confides in Charles Honeywell, the headmaster at the school where she works. But what Mel doesn’t know is that Charles is linked to what is happening to her daughter. Will Mel learn the terrible truth? And can she overcome her own tragic past and save her daughter before it’s too late?

A WINNER OF THE 2021 BETTY TRASK AWARDS SHORTLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE 2021 __________________________ 'Joyous' SPECTATOR 'Remarkable' SUNDAY TIMES 'A playful delight... A glorious novel' OBSERVER Swansby's New Encyclopaedic Dictionary is riddled with fictitious entries known as mountweazels penned by Peter Winceworth, a man wishing to make his lasting mark back in 1899. It's up to young intern Mallory to uncover these mountweazels before the dictionary can be digitised for modern readers. Lost in Winceworth's imagination - a world full of meaningless words - will Mallory finally discover the secret to living a meaningful life? __________________________ 'Made me almost tearful with gratitude that a book as clever as this could give such uncomplicated pleasure ... And when you find a book like this, you grab it, and you hold it close.' JOHN SELF 'A delight ... As funny and vivid as Dickens, as moving and memorable as Nabokov ... An extraordinarily large-hearted work.' THE CRITIC 'Deft and clever, refreshing and rewarding ... An assured and satisfying writer, her language rich and intricate and her characters rounded enough to be sympathetic and lampoonist enough to be terribly funny.' LITERARY REVIEW '[The] most exciting of young British writers ... Williams luxuriates in words and wordplay, in definition and precision and invention ...The Liar's Dictionary is a public joy, and Eley Williams a free-spirited literary kook with bags of potential.' BIG ISSUE 'A singular, hilarious, word-drunk novel, which I suspect will be seen in the future as a classic comic novel.' DAVID HAYDEN, IRISH TIMES 'The Liar's Dictionary is the book I was longing for ... Positively intoxicated with the joy and wonder of language ... Eley Williams brings erudition and playfulness - and lovely sweetness - to every page.' BENJAMIN DREYER, New York Times bestselling author of DREYER'S ENGLISH 'This tale of lexical intrigues is an absolute joy to read! It's gloriously inventive and playful, but with just the right amount of heart.' LUCY SCHOLES

These funny tall tales are anything but true. This classic collection of homespun humor as told by the two men on the Liar’s Bench in Seldon’s Barbershop amuses and sometimes astounds the other occupant of the barbershop, Jason Wells. You will laugh at the hilarious tales spun by the rascals on the liar’s bench. tall tale, hilarious, funny fiction, humor, collection, tall story

Paste Magazine Pick for Best New YA Books of August 2022 “An addictive, action-packed, scorcher of a read!” —#1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël Some shadows protect you...others will kill you in this dazzling new fantasy series from award-winning author Abigail Owen. Everything about my life is a lie. As a hidden twin princess, born second, I have only one purpose—to sacrifice my life for my sister if death comes for her. I’ve been living under the guise of a poor, obscure girl of no standing, slipping into the palace and into the role of the true princess when danger is present. Now the queen is dead and the ageless King Eidolon has sent my sister a gift—an eerily familiar gift—and a proposal to wed. I don’t trust him, so I do what I was born to do and secretly take her place on the eve of the coronation. Which is why, when a figure made of shadow kidnaps the new queen, he gets me by mistake. As I try to escape, all the lies start to unravel. And not just my lies. The Shadowraith who took me has secrets of his own. He struggles to contain the shadows he wields—other faces, identities that threaten my very life. Winter is at the walls. Darkness is looming. And the only way to save my sister and our dominion is to kill Eidolon...and the Shadowraith who has stolen my heart. The Dominions series is best enjoyed in order. Reading Order: Book #1 The Liar’s Crown Book #2 The Stolen Throne

The first book-length study devoted to this topic, Mendacity and the Figure of the Liar in Seventeenth-Century French Comedy offers an important contribution to scholarship on the theatre as well as on early modern attitudes in France, specifically on the subject of lying and deception. Unusually for a scholarly work on seventeenth-century theatre, it is particularly alert to plays as performed pieces and not simply printed texts. The study also distinguishes itself by offering original readings of Molière alongside innovative analyses of other playwrights. The chapters offer fresh insights on well-known plays by Molière and Pierre Corneille but also invite readers to discover lesser-known works of the time (by writers such as Benserade, Thomas Corneille, Dufresny and Rotrou). Through comparative and sustained close readings, including a linguistic and speech act approach, a historical survey of texts with an analysis of different versions and a study of irony, the reader is shown the manifest ways in which different playwrights incorporate the comedic tropes of lying and scheming, confusion and unmasking. Drawing particular attention to the levels of communicative or mis-communicative exchanges on the character-to-character axis and the character-to-audience axis, this work examines the process whereby characters in the comedies construct narratives designed to trick, misdirect, dazzle, confuse or exploit their interlocutors. In the different incarnations of seducer, parasite, cross-dresser, duplicitous narrator/messenger and deluded mythomaniac, the author underscores the way in which the figure of the liar both entertains and troubles, making it a fascinating subject worthy of detailed investigation.

When the Guardian first published details of Jonathan Aitken's abuse of power, he resigned from the Cabinet and vowed to fight for his name. In this book, three of the journalists who worked on the original story reveal the details of what unfolded.

Stein offers this beginner's guide to the power of numbers. He explains how math weaves the world together and the unexpected ways that discovery can lead to even more innovation.

We're now within the golden age of bullshit and whether we like it or not, we are being constantly bombarded with lies, fakery, and spin. This is especially true of the workplace. By using humor as well as test cases like Enron, this book exposes the techniques used by liars and shows how damaging they are to business. Find out about the various degrees of deceit, how to spot a liar, and how lying is used at every level at work. If you think your company is fraud-free, then you'll be one of the 80 percent of companies who believe that's the case. The only problem is that in a recent study, some 45 percent of companies found cases of fraud within their own staff. There's a bullshitter sitting near you now . . .