ChoeReddington2020
| ChoeReddington2020 | |
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| BibType | INCOLLECTION |
| Key | ChoeReddington2020 |
| Author(s) | Ann Tai Choe, Elizabeth Reddington |
| Title | But-prefacing for refocusing in public talk |
| Editor(s) | Hansun Zhang Waring, Elizabeth Reddington |
| Tag(s) | EMCA |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury |
| Year | 2020 |
| Language | English |
| City | London, UK |
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| URL | Link |
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| Book title | Communicating with the Public: Conversation Analytic Studies |
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Abstract
But as a discourse marker has been shown to join two contrastive ideas (Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Fraser, 1996) or mark denials of expectation (Blakemore, 1987; Lakoff, 1971). In this chapter, we continue to explore its interactional work (Bolden, 2006) with a specific focus on how but-prefaced turn-construction units (TCUs) are used by participants in public talk that is designed to inform a wider audience. Data consist of video- or audio-recordings of 1 televised interview, 2 podcasts, 1 moderated panel discussion, and 2 informational webinars. We show how but at the beginning of TCUs can be used to mark a resumption of the “main business.” In particular, but-prefacing is employed following talk that either (1) attends to unexpected contingencies, such as non-conforming interviewee responses or technical difficulties, or (2) can be heard as parenthetical to the current topic or action. We argue that, in these environments, but functions as a refocusing device, helping the speaker shift from talk that departs from the objective at hand to pursue the original course of action, thereby regaining the focus of discussion for the benefit of the overhearing (Goffman, 1981) audience. The findings contribute to the burgeoning literature on discourse markers in TCU-initial position (Bolden, 2006, 2009, 2010; Schegloff & Lerner, 2009; Waring, 2012) by identifying but as an important interactional resource for achieving coherence in communications involving a third-party audience.
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