Viittomakielet hybridisysteemeinä : hämärärajaisuus ja epäkonventionaalisuus osana viittomakielten rakennetta

This article investigates gradience and unconventionality as properties in the use of someunits and structures found in all sign languages. Specifically, the article focuses on certainsigns which have a contextually variable form and meaning (i.e. partly lexical signs), aswell as on a type of gradual enactment (i.e. constructed action) which signers use with, inbetweenand instead of traditional syntactic structures. In practice, the article presents atheoretical view according to which both phenomena in focus are conceptualized as hybridsthat result from the mixing of discrete and conventional features of language with gradientand unconventional ones. Also, the nature of spoken languages as hybrid systems is brieflydiscussed.