Differences between language and linguistic in the ELT classroom

Abstract

This paper attempts to present differences between language and linguistic. Language and linguistic are two different words but there is relationship between them. 'Language' is a sign system of humankind in order to communicate one's thoughts, Feelings, and opinions to someone else but linguistic is scientific study of language. In fact the goal of linguistic is to describe languages and to explain the unaware knowledge all speakers have about their language. Therefore, linguistics is a subject of study that is built on languages. Noam Chomsky (1957) argues that "Language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length, and constructed out of a finite set of elements" (p.13). According to Aronoff (2007) it is impossible to separate language from literature, or politics, or most of our everyday human interactions. "[Linguistics] has a twofold aim: to uncover general principles underlying human language, and to provide reliable descriptions of individual languages" (Aitchison, 1992). Also linguists, study individual human languages and linguistic behavior in order to discover the fundamental properties of this general human language. © 2013 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland.