Richards felt that information that was lost during a conversation was due to people's language. He wanted to closely study people's use of language. Richards says that the Proper Meaning Superstition is false because words mean different things to different people in different situations. This misunderstanding can cause problems when two people think that they are talking about the same thing, but really they are not. Another concept that Richards uses is the idea of signs and symbols in communication.
Smoke is a sign of a fire.
Words are a different kind of sign called a symbol. There is nothing special about the word that says it must be connected to what it stands for. The only reason that words are symbols of something is because they have been given meaning. This can cause problems when people are communicating using arbitrary words that do not have an exact meaning. Often times, words will mean one thing in a certain context and mean another thing in a different context.