Accumulatio Explained
Accumulatio is a figure of speech, part of the more general group of enumeratio,[1] in which the statements made previously are presented again in a compact, forceful manner. It often uses a climax for the summation of a speech.[2]
The word is Latin, from a verb meaning "to amass".
Examples
- "Your organization, your vigilance, your devotion to duty, your zeal for the cause must be raised to the highest intensity." Winston Churchill, Speech, 14 July 1941. (This sentence comes after a lengthy passage in which Churchill warns the public that their courage and effort are still needed to defeat the enemy).
- "He is the betrayer of his own self-respect, and the waylayer of the self-respect of others; covetous, intemperate, irascible, arrogant; disloyal to his parents, ungrateful to his friends, troublesome to his kin; insulting to his betters, disdainful of his equals and mates, cruel to his inferiors; in short, he is intolerable to everyone." (Suae pudicitiae proditor est, insidiator alienae; cupidus intemperans, petulans superbus; impius in parentes, ingratus in amicos, infestus cognatis; in superiores contumax, in aequos et pares fastidiosus, in inferiores crudelis; denique in omnes intolerabilis.) Attributed to Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium, IV.52
See also
References
- Dizionario di retorica e di stilistica, UTET, Torino, 2004.
- Web site: Accumulatio . 2012-03-02 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120302101458/http://rhetoric.byu.edu/Figures/A/accumulatio.htm . 2012-03-02 .
