Reflection: The use of mate in interactions amongst Australian speakers of English

We earlier mentioned in passing that “familiarizers”, such as mate, are often used in British English as a means of signaling solidarity amongst males. However, recent work by Rendle-Short (2009) indicates that amongst Australian speakers of English, at least, younger females are now also using the term mate as an address term. Rather than being seen as a term used primarily by men to show “equality or egalitarianism”, it is perceived as a “friendly and fun” term used to show intimacy. This indicates that the use and perception of socially deictic expressions can change over time, or at least they can change across generations of speakers of English.

Rendle-Short (2010) also illustrates in a follow-up study how the sequential placement of mate contributes to the understanding of participants about its function and implications in a particular context. It was found in her study that mate very often occurs after an assessment, agreement, acknowledgement or appreciation. In the following interaction, for instance, a father congratulates his son (a positive assessment) followed by the address term mate:

The son’s appreciation in the following turn (it’s ‘cos of you) is also followed by mate. In such post-positioned contexts it is used to signal “open friendliness”. However, in rejecting the acknowledgement, the father subsequently uses mate in the middle of his turn rather than it being post-positioned. In this case, the use of mate mitigates the force of this disagreement. We can see, then, that the sequential positioning of a referring expression can contribute, at least in part, to the interpretation of its particular function. We will return to consider the issue of sequentiality and speech acts.