Differences between language and communication

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We all know that, both people and animals, we communicate with each other either orally, in writing or gesturally through signs. Language and communication are two concepts that are often confused in Spanish. On many occasions they are used synonymously, but are they really? In this lesson from a TEACHER we explain the most relevant characteristics of each of these terms, how they complement each other, and we analyze in detail which are the differences between language and communication.

Index

1. What is language?
2. What is communication?
3. Differences between language and communication

Language is the ability of the human being as such to encode and decode a message, thus transmitting information of an abstract and complex nature. It is also called "language" to the set of signs that are used to encode articulated sounds and thus be able to transmit a message.

There are different types of language: written language, oral language, gestural language, etc. For this reason, the concept of

In a PROFESSOR we discover the main differences between oral and written language.

We understand by communication the action or effect of communicating; namely, the act through which one person establishes an exchange of information with another. For example, a person walks into a store and asks the clerk for a product that he wants to buy. At that moment a communicative act takes place because there is an issuer who transmits a message to a receiver through a channel, using a code (that is, the set of signs that encode the information).

In this way, representative elements of communication They are:

• The sender: the person issuing the message
• The message: the information to be communicated
• The channel: the medium through which the message is conveyed
• The receptor: the person who receives the message
• The code: the system of signs used by the sender to encode the message
• The context: the circumstances that encompass the emission and transmission of the message

On the other hand, it is important to bear in mind that communication is a process that not only takes place between human beings but also animals communicate each other through gestures, noises, or sounds; This is they use non-verbal language to convey information.

Once we have studied the concepts of language Y communication, we are going to explain what the differences are between the two. The main difference between the two terms is the fact that communication is the process through which information is exchanged and language is the system of signs used in communicative acts.

In other words, language is the set of linguistic elements (or non-linguistic, if it is non-verbal language) that facilitates communication between sender and receiver. A) Yes, language is the tool through which people (and also animals) establish a communicative act.

Another of the most important differences between language and communication is that language is subject to grammatical regulations (and orthographic, in the case of written language) since it is a system of signs that follows coding and decoding, which are common to all people who share that language, so that they can use it to communicate each.

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