Abstract: Language use reveals information about psychological state and psychopathological traits. Individuals with depression are distinguishable from healthy people in their patterns of language use. Identifying these linguistic patterns would help predict and better diagnosis depression. Research using traditional psychology methods and studies using social media data have demonstrated that individuals with depression used more first person singular pronouns and negative emotion words, and less first person plural pronouns and positive emotion words. Social media based research also identified some other language indicators of depressed patients in their daily lives. Future studies should identify other linguistic markers specific to depression, and explore the theoretical links between language indicators and depressive symptomatology.

Key words: depression, language use, social media, prediction, diagnosis