Blog Post #4

Throughout out these different exerts of Richards, it is clear that he is trying to get one message across. Richards believes that words by themselves don’t mean anything; it is when they are put together in different structures that their definition becomes clear. He states that he disagrees with the doctrine of Usage, in which, “there is a right or a good use for every word and that literary virtue consists in making that good use of it.”  He emphasizes how these words that we use everyday are learned not through their strict definition but by everyday conversation and context that we come in contact with. Richards points out that language and words are instruments and that people focused too much on the accuracy of the phrase than the, “handiness and ease” of it. Which shouldn’t be done, because the accuracy isn’t important as long as the message is getting across. That even though a person may use a certain word with a specific definition the words placed around it and the ton of the voice or text can relay a message with a meaning completely different than the word itself.


These readings have a very big relation to our discussions of remixes thus far. With the idea Richards presents, that a word only has a meaning once it is in its context gives the perception that you can take any word and remix it by putting in into numerous different phrases and ending up with different meanings and usages from them all.