esclamativo

Esclamativo is a term used in linguistics to designate exclamative forms or clauses that express strong emotion or emphasis. It can refer to a grammatical category, a sentence type, or the expressive use of intonation and punctuation within a language. In Romance languages, exclamative constructions typically involve particles such as qué or quanto and are often combined with adjectives or pronouns to convey intensity, as in ¡Qué gusto! (Spanish) or Que surpresa! (Portuguese) or Che sorpresa! (Italian). In English and many other languages, exclamative utterances are produced with exclamatory intonation and punctuation rather than a dedicated mood; examples include What a day! or How beautiful it is!

The function of esclamativo is to express emotions such as surprise, admiration, pain, joy, or anger. In written form, exclamatives are usually signaled by exclamation marks; in Spanish there is dual punctuation opening ¡ and closing !. Syntactically, exclamatives may be full clauses or fragments, sometimes derived from declarative clauses with an exclamative determiner or intensifier (such as tão in Portuguese or qué in Spanish).

In linguistic descriptions, esclamativo may be treated as the exclamative mood, a category distinct from the interrogative and declarative moods, or as a functional use of intonation within other moods. It overlaps with interjective uses when emphasis rather than reporting is intended.