Willem M Mak

Biographic Data

ID6176637
NAMEWillem M Mak
GIVEN NAMESWillem M
FAMILY NAMEMak
SIGNATUREMAK W M
AFFILIATIONSUtrecht University
VERIFIEDNo
TOTAL WORKS9
TOTAL CITATIONS17
WORKS AS AUTHOR9
WORKS AS EDITOR0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2002
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2021
H-INDEX2

  • The Role of Connectives and Stance Markers in the Processing of Subjective Causal Relations

    Open AccessYipu Wei, Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul et al.ARTICLEDiscourse Processes2021Cited by: 2References: 35

    Interpreting subjectivity in causal relations takes effort: Subjective, claim-argument relations are read slower than objective, cause-consequence relations. In an eye-tracking-while-reading experiment, we investigated whether connectives and stance markers can play a facilitative role. Sixty-five Chinese participants read sentences expressing a subjective causal relation, systematically varied in the use of stance markers (no, attitudinal, epist…

  • Causality, subjectivity and mental spaces

    Open AccessSuzanne Kleijn, Willem M Mak et al.ARTICLECognitive Linguistics2020References: 6

    Research has shown that it requires less time to process information that is part of an objective causal relation describing states of affairs in the world ( She was out of breath because she was running ), than information that is part of a subjective relation ( She must have been in a hurry because she was running ) expressing a claim or conclusion and a supporting argument. Representing subjectivity seems to require extra cognitive operations.…

  • Connective processing by bilingual children and monolinguals with specific language impairment

    Open AccessWillem M Mak, Elena Tribushinina et al.ARTICLEJournal of Child Language2017

    Production studies show that both Russian-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) and bilingual children for whom Russian is a non-dominant language have difficulty distinguishing between the near-synonymous connectives i ‘and’ and a ‘and/but’. I is a preferred connective when reference is maintained, whereas a is normally used for reference shift. We report an eye-tracking experiment comparing connective processing by Russian-s…

  • Three-year-olds can predict a noun based on an attributive adjective

    Open AccessElena Tribushinina, Willem M MakARTICLEJournal of Child Language2016

    This paper investigates whether three-year-olds are able to process attributive adjectives (e.g., soft pillow ) as they hear them and to predict the noun ( pillow ) on the basis of the adjective meaning ( soft ). This was investigated in an experiment by means of the Visual World Paradigm. The participants saw two pictures (e.g., a pillow and a book) and heard adjective–noun combinations, where the adjective was either informative (e.g., soft ) o…

  • Advanced learners’ comprehension of discourse connectives

    Open AccessSandrine Zufferey, Willem M Mak et al.ARTICLESecond language Research2015Cited by: 11References: 4

    Discourse connectives are important indicators of textual coherence, and mastering them is an essential part of acquiring a language. In this article, we compare advanced learners’ sensitivity to the meaning conveyed by connectives in an off-line grammaticality judgment task and an on-line reading experiment using eye-tracking. We also assess the influence of first language (L1) transfer by comparing learners’ comprehension of two non-native-like…

  • English as a lingua franca versus lingua receptiva in problem-solving conversations between Dutch and German students

    Gerda J Blees, Willem M Mak et al.ARTICLEApplied Linguistics Review2014

    In most universities, English as a lingua franca (ELF) is used for international courses. To promote linguistic diversity and facilitate first language education, some universities have experimented with lingua receptiva (LaRa). However, it is not clear yet which mode is most effective. This study compared the effectiveness of LaRa and ELF in conversations between Dutch and German students. Eight pairs of students, each consisting of one native D…

  • Semantics of Connectives Guides Referential Expectations in Discourse

    Willem M Mak, Elena Tribushinina et al.ARTICLEDiscourse Processes2013Cited by: 4References: 23

    This study aims to establish whether connectives can create referential expectations in discourse, and, if so, what these expectations are based on: connective semantics or frequency distributions in language use. This was tested by comparing the processing of the connectives “and” and “but” in Dutch and Russian by means of an eye-tracking experiment using the visual world paradigm. A corpus study showed that in terms of frequency distributions, …

  • Comprehension of disaster pictorials across cultures

    Gerda J Blees, Willem M MakARTICLEJournal of Multilingual and…2012References: 14

    In different countries, the use of pictorial information symbols to convey warnings and instructions is becoming more common. An important reason for this is that people from a variety of cultures can understand graphical symbols. However, symbols developed in one culture may not have the same meaning for people from other cultures. This study compared the comprehension of Dutch and Chinese participants of 30 pictorials from a series of ‘universa…

  • The Influence of Animacy on Relative Clause Processing

    Open AccessWillem M Mak, Wietske Vonk et al.ARTICLEJournal of Memory and Language2002