Talk, Talk, Talk

Kelly L. Green is co-author of The Ethical Shopper’s Guide to Canadian
Supermarket Products and associate editor of the Canadian Book Review
Annual.

Talking about talk—no one could do this better than science journalist
Jay Ingram, an inveterate talker himself, as fans of CBC radio’s
Quirks and Quarks will know. In this volume, Ingram has applied his
formidable talent for research to the task of analyzing the human
capacity for language, an ability that seems to be unique to our
species. The amount of material he has incorporated into the discussion
is truly mind-boggling. Covering everything from Noam Chomsky’s
theories about a language organ encoded directly into our genetic brain
hardware to the language experiments with chimpanzees like Neam
Chimpsky, Ingram takes us on a tour of current research, ancient
evidence, and surprising sociological phenomena (like the fact that men
consistently interrupt conversation more than women do).

This is a book for anyone interested in the phenomenon of human speech.
As with his other journalistic endeavors, Ingram has written this book
for the layperson who has no background in linguistics. Unfortunately,
he does not seem to realize that writing a book for readers who are
interested but lack expertise in a particular field does not give the
writer license to adopt a condescending prose style. The book is filled
with cute comments, lame jokes, and clever asides that insult the
reader’s intelligence. Why did Ingram’s editors not advise him that
what works in the world of broadcasting might not work in a book?

Nevertheless, for the sheer volume of research required to write a book
that can make sense of many different strands of linguistic inquiry,
Ingram should be commended. A comprehensive bibliography would not have
been amiss for the serious reader, but the author chose to go with notes
only, and an extremely abbreviated suggested reading list. Once again,
he seems to have underestimated the seriousness of interest on the part
of this book’s readers. Even laypeople and “general readers,” as
he calls us, may want to dig more deeply than Clan of the Cave Bear in
their personal research.