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This paper aims to present observations on the pragmaticalized use as well as the concomitant functions of the demonstrative este in Mexican Spanish. Este seems to serve an additional range of functions in Mexican Spanish in particular, but also in other Hispanic American varieties, as it has turned into a quite productive discourse marker that can be considered, among other things, as a hesitation element, an outline signal, and probably also as an evidentiality marker. The specific functional domains (especially with regard to possible evidential functions) will be illustrated in more detail in the paper using oral language data from the speaker community of the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca de Juárez. The study also includes a sociolinguistically oriented quantitative analysis, the results of which will also be discussed in the context of language ideological attitudes towards este.

Two loess sections from the Upper Palaeolithic site of Kammern-Grubgraben (Lower Austria) were analysed to test geochemical proxies, as well as radiocarbon data of different components, for their reliability and consistency in an archaeological context. Only a reliable basal age (28.9–27.8 ka cal BP) was obtained from charcoal fragments derived from a tundra gley underlying the archaeological horizons and assigned to Greenland Interstadials 3 or 4. Grain size, organic and inorganic geochemistry, and stable isotopes of the fine organic fraction (δ13Corg) and of rhizoconcretions (δ13C, δ18O) were analysed to provide information on palaeoenvironmental conditions. Low-resolution geochemical and sedimentological analyses document a humidity-related variability, while δ13Corg values indicate predominant C3 vegetation. High-resolution elemental variations derived from X-ray fluorescence scanning exhibit increasing Ca and decreasing Fe and Ti values, indicating drier conditions towards the top. Secondary pedogenic carbonate concretions provide post-sedimentary (Holocene) ages and are not suitable for assessing climate and environmental changes for the Palaeolithic.

Verbal periphrases (VP) constitute a typological feature of Romance languages and they are especially frequent in the Iberoromanic languages. In the context of this paper, the aspectual verbal construction stare a + infinito and the modal VP volere + infinito will be “grasped in the concrete speech action” (Katelhön 2013: 237; my translation) in order to show how these two VPs are used as discourse-structuring elements in contemporary Italian (outline signals, turn-taking markers, hesitation phenomena etc.). Furthermore, formal and functional equivalents of the periphrastic discourse markers it. sta(mmi) a sentire and it. voglio dire will be analyzed in two Romance “sister languages”, namely French and Spanish, as well as in a typologically more distant language, namely German. The translation strategies chosen in the respective target languages will be examined with regard to the preservation or modification of pragmatic-discursive values inherent in the source language structure. For the present study, which is exclusively qualitative, the LIP corpus and the OPUS corpus (Tiedemann 2012, Italian), which is a collection of subtitles from a wide range of films in various languages, were used.

Am 10. November 2022 hat der Bundestag endlich beschlossen, das Fakultativprotokoll zum Internationalen Pakt über wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Rechte (UN-Sozialpakt) zu ratifizieren, das ein Individualbeschwerdeverfahren bei Menschenrechtsverletzungen ermöglicht. Dies war lange überfällig. Inwiefern sich dieser Schritt aber auch tatsächlich auf die individuellen Rechte auswirkt, steht und fällt mit der zukünftigen Praxis der nationalen Gerichte, die eine Prüfung häufig ablehnen. Diese Haltung reflektiert (auch) eine grundsätzliche Einstellung der Rechtswissenschaft zu den wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und kulturellen Rechten (wsk-Rechte), die sich dringend ändern muss.

Abstract The Russian government’s attack on Ukraine and the spiral of sanctions that has been set in motion have heightened inflationary pressure — especially in Europe. The EU’s high dependency on Russian oil and gas imports harbours the risk that inflation in Europe will rise significantly and that the economy will suffers from a loss of purchasing power. The pressure on policymakers to take counter-measures is growing. However, the options are limited in the short term and economically very costly. And longer-term consequences must be taken into account. Energy policy and climate policy must be closely linked.