Taking a detour before answering the question: Turn-initial okay in second position in English interaction Darcey K. deSouza a, * , Emma Betz b , Mary Clinkenbeard c , Emi Morita d , Natasha Shrikant e , William A. Tuccio f a Northeastern University, USA b University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada c Southern University and A&M College, USA d National University of Singapore, Singapore e University of Colorado Boulder, USA f GARMIN, USA article info Article history: Keywords: Okay Second position Turn-initial particle Question-answer sequences Multi-unit turns Conversation analysis abstract Okay is used in different sequential environments for a variety of interactional functions across languages, but the range of context-specific uses of the particle is not yet fully explored. This conversation analytic study focuses on turn-initial okay in English, specif- ically in responses to questions where okay does not itself constitute the answer. We argue that okay in responsive position combines the semantics of acceptance and transition for a sequentially particularized use: Okay looks backward to accept the question and mark the speaker's readiness to respond while also looking forward to project talk that is not the conditionally relevant answer. This talk temporarily postpones, but does not move away from, the conditionally relevant answer, and the resulting multi-unit turn architecture that we observe is: Question – Okay þ UNIT 1 (not the answer) þ UNIT 2 (the answer). Okay projects a ‘detour’ from the asked-for answer in favor of managing aspects of the question or addressing the need for additional work in answering. Data are in English and include varieties spoken in Canada, Singapore, and the United States. Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Okay has been called a “spectacular expression” (Read, 1963, p. 83): It is a relatively recent arrival to the English language but one of the most common words today, exhibiting a perplexing range of uses. Since its first appearance in print in the 1830s (Metcalf, 2010), okay has spread from American English to other varieties of English and then to many of the world's lan- guages. In this process, it forged different paths within these languages' particle systems and developed uses that parallel but also diverge from what we find in English. There is now a considerable body of work on English okay in interaction (see Betz and Sorjonen, 2020), but the range of context-specific uses of the particle is not yet fully explored. This conversation analytic study examines okay in second position following questions in different varieties of English. It contributes to documenting the breadth of uses in English, thus also expanding the basis for cross-linguistic study of okay and * Corresponding author. 218 Holmes Hall, Boston, MA 02115, USA. E-mail addresses: d.desouza@northeastern.edu (D.K. deSouza), embetz@uwaterloo.ca (E. Betz), mclinkenbeard@noctrl.edu (M. Clinkenbeard), jpsme@ nus.edu.sg (E. Morita), natasha.shrikant@colorado.edu (N. Shrikant), bill@tuccio.com (W.A. Tuccio). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Language & Communication journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/langcom https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.09.005 0271-5309/Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Language & Communication 76 (2021) 47–57