The Kingdom of Speech

297 pages

English language

Published June 27, 2016

ISBN:
9780316269964
OCLC Number:
956946589

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The Kingdom of Speech is a critique of Charles Darwin and Noam Chomsky written by Tom Wolfe. The book's criticisms of Chomsky are outlined in an article in Harper's.In the book, Wolfe criticises Darwin and his colleagues for taking partial credit from Alfred Wallace for the theory of evolution and ignoring Wallace's later work on the theory. Wolfe then criticises Noam Chomsky for dismissing Daniel Everett, who disputes Chomsky's claim that all languages are based ultimately on a hard-wired mechanism known as the language acquisition device (LAD). Wolfe argues that speech, not evolution, sets humans apart from animals and is responsible for all of humanity's complex achievements.

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reviewed The Kingdom of Speech

Rage against Chomsky

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This book is just a massive "fuck you" to Noam Chomsky and to the proposition that speech & language are intrinsic evolved biological constructs rather than an artifact developed and honed by humans. And wow is the author fantastically ticked off about the whole situation — with zero hesitation about telling us what he thinks.

I think it's an utterly meaningless debate. Language is a technology, for sure. It requires certain biology to use, and a perhaps not-identical biology to develop. It's been around a while, and clearly makes up part of humanity's epigenetic profile of adaptation and fitness. I want to say that this makes for a pointless book, but the core thesis is, as discussed, "fuck Noam Chomsky in particular", and that's a message I can get behind.

Subjects

  • Origin
  • Social history
  • Oral communication
  • Language and culture
  • Human evolution
  • Historical linguistics
  • Large type books
  • Language and languages