A paper presented in 1994 suggested that IS signers "combine a relatively rich and structured grammar with a severely impoverished lexicon".Allsop, Lorna; Woll, Bencie; Brauti, John Martin (1995). International sign: The creation of an international deaf community and sign language. In: Bos, Heleen F. and Schermer, Gertrude M. (eds): "Sign Language Research 1994: Proceedings of the Fourth European Congress on Sign Language Research, Munich, September 1–3, 1994." (International Studies on Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf; 29) Hamburg : Signum (1995)p. 187 Supalla and Webb (1995) describe IS as a kind of a pidgin, but conclude that it is "more complex than a typical pidgin and indeed is more like that of a full sign language".Supalla, T. and Webb, R. (1995). "The grammar of international sign: A new look at pidgin languages." In: Emmorey, Karen / Reilly, Judy S. (eds): Language, gesture, and space. (International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research) Hillsdale, N.J. : Erlbaum (p. 347).
A paper presented in 1994 suggested that IS signers "combine a relatively rich and structured grammar with a severely impoverished lexicon".Allsop, Lorna; Woll, Bencie; Brauti, John Martin (1995). International sign: The creation of an international deaf community ,and sign language. In: Bos, Heleen F. and Schermer, Gertrude M. (eds): "Sign Language Research 1994: Proceedings of the Fourth European Congress on Sign Language Research, Munich, September 1–3, 1994." (International Studies on Sign Language and Communication of the Deaf; 29) Hamburg : Signum (1995)p. 187 Supalla and Webb (1995) describe IS as a kind of a pidgin, but conclude that it is "more complex than a typical pidgin and indeed is more like that of a full sign language".Supalla, T. and Webb R. (1995). "The grammar of international sign: A new look at pidgin languages." In: Emmorey, Karen / Reilly, Judy S. (eds): Language, gesture, and space. (International Conference on Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research) Hillsdale, N.J. : Erlbaum (p. 347).