Nuanced elaboration as alignment reworking

Turn-final but in post-response design

Bibliographic Data

ID24241479
AuthorsKazuki Hata (0000-0001-9137-9957, Tokyo City University)
Year2026
Publication date2026-10-29
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePragmatics Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1018-2101 • E-ISSN: 2406-4238
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/prag.19009.hat
OpenAlexW7224677089
LanguageEN
References cited35

Alignment is not always settled when a response first becomes available. Speakers may produce an initially ‘good-enough’ response that makes progression relevant, even though its uptake remains under-specified as the sequence unfolds. One post-response elaboration format ends with English turn-final but , re-specifying the response’s import for the emerging trajectory and often followed by silence. This post- but silence provides a juncture that can be treated as open-ended: participants may move on, pursue further specification, or let the talk lapse. Drawing on twenty-five instances from approximately sixty-seven hours of interaction, this paper shows how alignment is reworked through these but -ending elaborations. The findings contribute to conversation-analytic accounts of alignment as an accomplishment achieved across turns rather than a single-turn outcome, and to research on turn-final but .

Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis

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