Contrast-terminal: The sequential placement of trailoff but in extensive courses of action

Abstract

In a trailoff environment, the turn-final conjunctional but is typically packaged with an immediately preceding constituent to form a single turn and sequentially displays a possible pragmatic completion point without syntactic completion of a turn (i.e. trailoff but). Utilising a conversation-analytic approach, this article investigates the sequential placement of trailoff but as a contrast-terminal token. In the extensive courses of action in institution settings, trailoff but is observed to facilitate a stepwise sequence-move in the trajectory of talk to pursue pre-determined interactional agendas. This article argues that the current but-turn illustrates: (a) possible completion of contrasting actions rather than just a turn itself or propositions; and (b) the readiness for a turn transition. The but-turn is thus not merely a continuation of the prior talk yet may operate to be a resource for participants to understand action-level completion with a projected contrast made salient, and therefore, no attempts to revisit the contrast are re-projected in a post-conjunctional space.