Few studies have approached the subject of lying from a rhetorical perspective. Even philosophical studies have concentrated more on truth than on deceit. A central concern of a definition of lying is to recognize that lies must be examined both from the speaker's position and from the perceptions of the listener. Such an examination can be done from a rhetorical point of view because lying is essentially a communication act. For lying to be differentiated from other forms of deception, seven conditions must exist: (1) the speaker must speak seriously and rhetorically; (2) in saying "X," the speaker must believe other than "X"; (3) the speaker must believe something other than "X" while seeking to get the listener to believe "X"; (4) a listener must hear the speaker say "X"; (5) the utterance must be plausible from the listener's point of view; (6) the listener must take the speaker as meaning the utterance; and (7) the listener must find "reality" to be different from the speaker's verbal expression. Thus, lying is a judgment made about a speaker by a listener. A full description of lying, then, must take into account perceptions of listeners. (HTH)