Difference Between Language and Linguistics
Linguistics as well as Language is two words with different meanings that must be used differently. A language is that by means of which we express our thoughts with the aid of specific sounds. However, only thoughts are insufficient to express what one is feeling. You have to do with enunciating sound too. Enunciation brings life to a language.
Linguistics is a field of study that has everything to do with language. It actually is study that involves comparing different languages. While studying linguistics, one has to do a historical study of languages. Otherwise as it is called comparative philology. The language has four branches on which the study is built.
The four branches of linguistics are Syntax, phonology, Semantics and morphology. Phonology is where one studies the sound. Morphology is the study of the way the words are formed when the sounds combine. Syntax is all about the arrangements of the words in a sentence. Semantics is the study of the meaning and the method by which that particular meaning has come to be attached to the particular words.
Now it should be understood that Linguistic is a subject of study based on languages. So we can regard language as the basic unit of linguistics. If it were not for so many languages, Linguistics would not have existed. This means that languages open the way for the growth of the field of linguistics.
Linguistics studies the nature of language, the phonetic changes that occur in different languages, changes in the meaning of particular words over time. A few laws have also been recommended by linguists working on languages. Each language has special characteristic features that are inherent. Since languages are separate and individual in nature the need for comparative study or Linguistics arose.