2018 Articles

But-prefacing for Refocusing in Public Questioning and Answering

Choe, Ann Tai; Reddington, Elizabeth

In this paper, we focus on a special use of but in interactions in which those doing the questioning and answering are accountable for producing talk that is relevant to a third party—an overhearing audience. Specifically, we aim to show how participants leverage the contrastive power of but in turn-initial position to refocus following a deviation from the main course of action.