blog post 4

The point Richards is trying to make is that no word can be judged as good or bad, correct or incorrect, beautiful or ugly. The doctrine of usage says that there is a right or a good use for every word and that literary virtue consists in making that good use of it. Quoting Richard, The important point is that words are here supposed just sheerly to possess their sense, as men have their names in the reverse case, and to carry this meaning with them into sentences regardless of the neighbour words. That is the assumption I am attacking, because, if we follow up its practical consequences in writing and reading and trace its effects upon interpretation, we shall'find among them no small proportion of the total of our verbal misunderstandings. What Richards is saying is that no word is wrong because words change and mix and transform over time, words are a remix.