"The end identifies the means" : unexpressed objects and path phrases

Meanings conveyed by verbs often imply the presence of a number of possible arguments, not all of which surface as overt forms. For example, the verb ‘know’ requires two participants, the knower and the fact known. Languages do not usually require a separate argument for the source of knowledge; if it is mentioned at all, it is normally an optional adverbial. A similar claim can be made about instrument arguments. They are not required by verbs like “kill” or “hit”, and when they are realized, they are usually prepositional phrases like “with a gun”. Recently, however, contrary voices have been heard. For example, Palmer et al. (2005) view them as present in the argument structures of all verbs of hitting. This is an extreme step, and perhaps fine grained distinctions should be made, but as we will show below, in many cases, unexpressed instruments are real complements whose presence is indicated by the behavior of path phrases

NAS-50 and NAS-40 : new scales for the assessment of self-control

In this paper, we present a new questionnaire for the assessment of self-control as an individual trait. We describe the process of construction of this assessment tool. We also report the results of relevant validation studies. The questionnaire has two independent versions, one based on self-reports (NAS-50) and another one based on other-reports (NAS-40). The first version consists of five subscales (10 items each), called Initiative and Persistence (IP), Proactive Control (PC), Switching and Flexibility (SF), Inhibition and Adjournment (IA), and Goal Maintenance (GM). Seven samples of participants (N = 934 altogether) took part in the validation study. The second version has not been split into subscales. Both versions obtained satisfactory indices of internal consistency, assessed with Cronbach’s alpha (for NAS- 50 total score a = .861, for the subscales a between .726 and .867; for NAS-40 a = .844). The NAS-50 and NAS-40 scores were highly correlated with other measures of self-control, including Tangney, Baumeister, and Boone’s (2004) self-control scale. They also proved to be entirely independent of general intelligence. In conclusion, both versions can be regarded reliable and valid enough, and therefore suitable for the assessment of trait self-control for research purposes