exclamatio

Exclamatio is a term used in rhetoric and linguistics to denote an exclamatory utterance. In its broad sense it encompasses expressions that convey strong emotion, surprise, admiration, or emphasis, and can take the form of interjections or exclamatory sentences. The term is Latin in origin, derived from exclamare, "to exclaim," and has been adopted in modern scholarship to describe both historical and contemporary usage.

In classical rhetoric, exclamatio referred to a figure of speech that heightens emotional impact. It often involves the use of interjections such as O or Ah, and may be marked in writing by emphasis or punctuation rather than syntactic structure alone. Latin writers frequently employ exclamations to heighten dramatic effect or express personal address to a person or deity, as in dramatic or elegiac poetry and oratory.

In modern linguistics, exclamatio is used more broadly to classify expressive utterances that are not merely sentences with emotional content but also include standalone interjections and exclamatory clauses. Researchers study its functional role in discourse, its typology across languages, and its interaction with punctuation and prosody.

See also: Exclamation, Interjection, Exclamative sentence.