Expansion-relevant final but for preference organisation

Abstract

This article focuses on the utilisation of but in English at turn-final placement regarding provisions for what follows next, where the token is not a display of a traditional sense of content-level contrasts. The production of final buts in this article is a point of expansion relevance and emergent as a means of intersubjectively creating another opportunity space to deal with the ongoing disaffiliation or lack of resources. My observations particularly unpack the contextual properties of final buts. First, a but-turn is designed not strictly to show a partial agreement and back down from the original statement. It can be more plausibly argued that the but-turn indicates which resource of interaction is (or is not) requested at that specific moment to accomplish the ongoing agenda. Second, a projected action of reworking can be formulated in collaborative completion with a co-participant explicating the account to the but-turn.