Indexing epistemic access through different confirmation formats: Uses of responsive (das) stimmt in German interaction

•Confirmation in German can be done with responsive (das) stimmt/‘(that's) right’.•Two responsive formats exist, lexical (stimmt) and clausal (das stimmt).•Both can primarily indicate agreement or index a change in epistemic access.•das stimmt contains an explicit anaphoric reference, thus highlighting secondness.•stimmt may also confirm implicit information and thus manage momentary misalignment.

Responses are central to managing understanding in interaction. Response formats and tokens make reference to prior talk, index epistemic rights, and align or agree with previous actions. Lexical choice and grammatical alternatives are important for understanding responding actions.This conversation analytic study describes two formats of responsive stimmt in German: lexical stimmt (‘right’/‘true’/‘exactly’) and clausal das stimmt (‘that's right/true’). Both formats are used to index independent access to a position or knowledge explicit or implied in the previous turn, but both confirm from a position of local subordination. Both either mark agreement or index a change in epistemic stance.With clausal uses, speakers lexically foreground sequential secondness through explicit anaphoric reference (das). With lexical uses, speakers foreground a realization process. Lexical stimmt allows for a broader range of functions. While das stimmt always refers to information accessed explicitly through the prior turn, stimmt may refer to implicit background information. One common use is to mark the actuation of information implicit in the previous turn and thus bring to the surface and manage momentary misalignment.This paper enhances our understanding of the social-interactional work of responsive turns and illustrates the centrality of epistemics in interaction.