I. I.S. Richards, the famous Cambridge Scholar, in his 'Principles of Literary Criticism' introduces a very pertinent observation on language. Language is used in two ways. In the 34th chapter of the book Richards explains the psychological processes underlying the different uses of language. He begins by affirming that psychological terms like knowledge, belief assertion etc. only tend to blur the distinction between the two uses. On the other hand an introspection into the causes of mental events would help us to understand how different uses of language occur. Among the causes of mental events, two sets may be distinguished. On the one hand, these are the present stimuli and the excitation caused by past stimuli. On the other hand, there is readiness to respond to these stimuli. The resulting impulses are conditioned and influenced by these two nets. So long as an impulse owes its character to its stimulus and remains undistorted, it is a reference. The independent internal conditions of the organism usually intervene to distort reference. It is true that many of our needs can be satisfied if the impulses are left undistorted. The undistorted body of references belongs to science. If omniscient, all necessary attitudes could be maintained through scientific references. Since we do not know very much, we are constrained to resort to fiction. There are innumerable other human activities which require distorted references or fiction. This is the poetical use of language.
II Analysing the two uses of language, I.A. Richards make a few pertinent observations. A statement may be used for the sake of the reference, true or false. This is the scientific use of language. Scientific language for Richards is the language that refers to the real world and makes statements, either true or false. The arts are our store houses of recorded values and they help us equipped for realizing such ends, for its language is not scientific, but emotive . Emotive language wants to produce certain emotional effects and certain attitudes in those to whom it addresses itself. 'Many, if not most of the statements in poetry are there as a means to the manipulation and expression of feelings and attitudes, not as contributions to any body of doctrine of any type whatever'. Logical veracity often such statements is irrelevant. Their sole function is to bring about and support responses, dispositions and attitudes. This is the poetic use of language. In other words, poetry uses language emotively and connotatively while science uses it referentially and denotatively.
