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…

The authors had the privilege of speaking over dinner with John Heritage, a plenary speaker at the eighth annual Conference of "The Language and Social Interaction Working Group" (LANSI) held at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Heritage is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)…

During an online webinar, a question and answer (Q&A) segment is a valuable time during which audience members can petition an institution's hosting representatives to clarify, expand upon, or otherwise assist with questions or issues that remain after a presentation has been made. As would be the case in any information-dissemination event,…

This article provides an overview of conversation analytic research that investigates the phenomenon of interlocutors "finishing each other's sentences," termed "collaborative completion, in everyday conversation. The objective is twofold: (1) by reporting on research that examines the formal features and the social actions of…