Yes, you can. Basic, C, C++, C# and most other languages provide some mechanism for communicating with the serial port. You simply need to check the documentation for you language/compiler for that mechanism, and code away.
Selecting the correct serial port is the hardest part.
Setting the baud rate, parity, and stop bits is the next most complicated part.
Sending and receiving data is easy. It's designing a protocol (a contract between the PC and the Arduino) that's time-consuming.