Nuanced elaboration as alignment reworking

Abstract Alignment is not always settled when a response first becomes available. Speakers may produce an initially ‘good-enough’ response that makes progression relevant, even though its uptake remains under-specified as the sequence unfolds. One post-response elaboration format ends with English turn-final but , re-specifying the response’s import for the emerging trajectory and often followed by silence. This post- but silence provides a juncture that can be treated as open-ended: participants may move on, pursue further specification, or let the talk lapse. Drawing on twenty-five instances from approximately sixty-seven hours of interaction, this paper shows how alignment is reworked through these but -ending elaborations. The findings contribute to conversation-analytic accounts of alignment as an accomplishment achieved across turns rather than a single-turn outcome, and to research on turn-final but .