The aim of this paper is to provide fundamental theoretical studies on basic uncertain linguistic information soft set (BULISS). Firstly, the combination of basic uncertain linguistic information and soft set is introduced. Next, set operations and similarity measure on basic uncertain linguistic information soft sets and their properties are discussed. A novel application of basic uncertain linguistic information soft set to multi-criteria group decision making is put forward, in which the similarity measure between any two BULISSs is developed. A group decision algorithm by utilizing traditional decision procedure of soft set theory (or fuzzy soft set theory) and optimization method is given. Finally, a case study relating to curriculum recommendation is shown to illustrate feasibility and validity of the developed group decision making approach.