Abstract
Several studies show how computational linguistics has identified broad lexical markers of mental distress. However, a gap exist in understanding how people affected by mental health conditions linguistically evaluate and construct their subjective experiences. This study addresses this gap using a detailed Appraisal analysis (Martin & White, 2005) of a single, Nigerian podcast narrative on depression and anxiety. Moving beyond thematic description, this study analyses how the narrator uses the Attitude system of Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation to build their reality. The study argues that Appraisal Theory provides an imperative framework for capturing the functional relationship of language and emotion in mental health narratives. The findings have implications for discourse analysis, culturally-grounded mental health communication, and therapeutic practices. That is, the research foregrounds that healing is, in part, a linguistic act of learning to re-appraise one’s own story. The research reveals that the narrator’s depressive state is devised through the expressions of negative attitudinal judgment, condensed engagement, and intensified graduation. Essentially, the study establishes that the path to recovery is linguistically recorded not by the absence of this negative discourse, but by the strategic change of appraisal constructions.
Keywords: Appraisal, Mental health, Depression, Anxiety, Discourse analysis
DOI: 10.36349/alqajolls.2025.v01i01.027
author/Taiye, O.F., Abdullahi, A. & Ottah-Agede, B.S.
journal/AL-QALAM JLLS 1(1) | December 2025
