English Notes for University Students

Saturday, 31 October 2015

I. A. Richards ( Essay on English criticism) THE TWO USES OF LANGUAGE

I. A.
Richards                                     
The Two Uses of Language

Ivor Armstrong Richards was born

at Cheshire in England in the year 1893. His
Principles of Literary Criticism was
published in the year 1924. The essay
titled “The Two Uses of Language is taken from this book.  I.A. Richards was a great
critic who
developed a new way of reading poetry. His great contribution to literary
criticism was the distinction he made
between the ‘two uses of language’ – the
referential and the emotive.  I. A.
Richards is considered as one of the founders of
modern literary criticism
better known as the New Criticism.  He
thought that criticism should emulate the precision of the
exact sciences.  Aesthetics, psychology and semantics were
brought together in this new approach to criticism. Thus “New
Criticism” has
been developed.
Richards turns criticism into a
science. He believes that the making of literature is a scientifically
analyzable activity.

To explain the nature of poetry,

Richards first examined the working of the human mind.
According to Richards, the human
mind is a “system of impulses” and poetry is the record of the happy play of
impulses. It is
to share his experience that the true reader goes to him.
Richards examines what kind of language poetry uses.  There are
two uses of language. They are the
scientific use and the emotive use.  In
the referential or scientific, the word faithfully
recalls the object.  In the emotive use, the word evokes emotions.
The emotive use of language is used in poetry and other
literary works.  In the scientific use of language, the
references should be correct and the relation of references should be
logical.
References are conditions for developing attitudes. References may be true or
false. But the aim of references is only
to support and develop different
attitudes in human beings.  Aristotle
wisely said: “Better a plausible impossibility than an
improbable possibility”.
In the emotive use of language, false (wrong) references are not harmful or
dangerous.  On the
other hand, in the
scientific use of language, false (wrong) references are very dangerous.  Similarly in the emotive use of
language, any
truth or logical arrangement is not necessary.

 
Richards denied to poetry any truth of reference and argued that the
‘truth’ as applied to a work of art could mean only the
‘internal necessity’ or
‘rightness’ of the work of art.  Artistic
truth is a matter of ‘inner coherence’. 
Richards goes on to
consider the connotations of the word ‘truth’ in
criticism.  In literary criticism, the
common use is ‘acceptability’ or
‘probability’. 
For example “Robinson Crusoe” written by Daniel Diffoe is true in the
sense of the acceptability, because the
readers all over the world greatly
appreciated this novel. But after all it is nothing but a fiction! Such a
person existed in real
life is not relevant to the ‘truth’ of the novel.
Similarly a happy ending to Shakespeare’s play ‘King Lear’ would be false
because it would be unacceptable to the readers. Poetry uses language emotively
and connotatively while science uses it
referentially and denotatively.
Paragraph questions:
1)     
Briefly explain the two uses of language as introduced
by I.A. Richards? – 2nd para.
2)         
What according to I.A. Richards are the chief uses of
the word ‘truth’ in criticism? – answer 3rd paragraph of the
essay.
Essay: Briefly
describe I.A. Richards’ contribution to Literary Criticism.

KJT English Notes

at
02:24

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23 comments:

Unknown 23 April 2017 at 07:02

Nice and useful information. In a short way. Thanx for that.
Reply

https://antigonewillishi.blogspot.in/ 13 September 2017 at 08:48

Thanks alot I am a ba student this has made part of the portion stress free.... Thanks alot sir once more
Reply

Rajiya 26 March 2018 at 07:42

Thanks alot sir.. U cleared my concept
Reply

Vinod D. Muley 30 April 2018 at 04:32

Informative indeed - Vinod D. Muley, Indore (M.P.)
Reply

Unknown 4 December 2018 at 20:47

thanku so much
Reply

Unknown 10 March 2019 at 09:06

Tq so very much for all these notes which help us a lot .tqqqqqqq
Reply

Unknown 22 March 2019 at 03:42

Thanks ,a lot sir.

Please

Reply

Unknown 8 April 2019 at 05:48

I'm very much thankful to you dear sir
Reply

Provzie 28 June 2019 at 10:09

This has been very helpful. Definitely using it for my exams. Thank you.
Reply

Mark B. 27 October 2019 at 17:35

Amazing. Short but excessively detailed. Definitely useful material for personal assignments and up to par notes for exams. Thank
you so much!
Reply

MRINMAY 19 February 2020 at 07:16

Thanks a lot sir
Reply

manish badkas 25 March 2020 at 20:42

Your explanation is scientifically emotive 😜
Reply

JEETENDRA RAJAK 20 April 2020 at 20:39

short ans sweet

thanks

Reply

Shivkanya 29 April 2020 at 01:50

Amazing
Reply

Shivkanya 29 April 2020 at 01:50

Amazing
Reply

Unknown 14 May 2020 at 05:58

Very nice explanation thanks a lot.
Reply

Unknown 14 May 2020 at 06:01

Very nice explanation thanks a lot you cleared each and every steps.

From:- Naveen Sharma, Ujjain.

Reply

Mutabir Nabi 7 June 2020 at 20:14

can I get a comprehensive critical note on I A Richards
Reply

Kkhokhar 12 August 2020 at 21:02

Excellently brief piece of information...thanks a lot
Reply

amarjeet 23 September 2020 at 08:09

where i can

find two uses of english language according to I A richards

Reply

Unknown 3 October 2020 at 00:29

Thank u sir 😊
Reply

Unknown 26 March 2021 at 07:54

WHO CAN HELP WITH CITING THIS WORK?

Reply

Sreelekshmi the pedagogue 7 August 2021 at 22:45

Thank you sir

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