Culpability Denial and Admissibility in Suicide Notes in Nigeria: A Linguistic Interrogation

This paper is motivated by the global statistics on the number of suicide victims recorded yearly and the near absence of lingo-social orientation towards the prevention of suicide. In this study, we adopt a linguistic approach that involves looking at pre-suicide interactions (what suicide victims say prior to their committing suicide) and suicide notes (what they say at the point of suicide). Data are collected, using purposive sampling technique, from selected Nigerian newspapers: Daily Sun and Vanguard Newspapers and other textual sources like Facebook pages of suicide victims where the researchers are able to glance through pre—suicide comments of suicide victims and their suicide notes. Theoretically, two aspects of Halliday’s (1994) Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) —’transitivity’ and ‘modality’ guided the analyses. The analyses show that people’s linguistic choices are strong pointer to the intent and execution of suicidal ideation. Such linguistic choices are majorly characterised by expression of hopelessness, self-defeat, the use of rhetorical interrogatives and expression of atheistic ideations.

Keywords: Nigeria Suicide Culpability Denial Transitivity Modality

Authors

• Justus C. Ugwu
  Department of English and Literary Studies,
  Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria
  justus.ugwu@esut.edu.ng
• Obiageli C. Nnamani
  Department of English and Literary Studies,
  Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Nigeria
  obynnamani@gmail.com