This article explores similarities between English as a lingua franca (ELF) and International Sign (IS), two lingua franca phenomena which in the last decades have been subject to increasing, albeit independent, linguistic research. In contrast to spoken intercultural communication, in which English often represents a shared resource that speakers from different linguacultural backgrounds draw on, in the visual-gestural modality no specific sign language has yet gained such global reach. Instead, in many international contexts IS is used: a lingua franca that can be more or less conventionalized and that is not based on one particular sign language. IS use depends on the communicative situation, in which signers flexibly and creatively use different signs from natural sign languages as well as iconic elements and gestures. Despite overt formal differences between ELF and IS, when focusing on the actual communication process, rather than the forms that result from it, the two lingua franca phenomena share many similarities. In fact, both ELF and IS are variable communicative means that get situationally adapted by speakers and signers on the basis of different resources they have at their disposal. Similar discussions about the difficulty of conceptualizing ELF and IS, about the role of multilingual resources, and about interaction processes at play can thus be found in both ELF and IS literature. This insight opens up new possibilities for researchers in the two fields to mutually benefit from the study of lingua franca communication in the other modality, which prompts the need for a cross-modal collaboration between ELF and IS researchers.

中文翻译：

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口语和手语交流的比较：英语作为通用语（ELF）和国际手语（IS）的案例

本文探讨英语作为通用语 (ELF) 和国际符号 (IS) 之间的相似之处，这两种通用语现象在过去几十年中一直受到越来越多的语言研究的影响，尽管是独立的语言研究。与口语跨文化交流相比，英语通常代表来自不同语言文化背景的说话者所利用的共享资源，在视觉手势模式中，还没有特定的手语获得如此全球性的影响。取而代之的是，在许多国际环境中使用 IS：一种通用语，可以或多或少地传统化，并且不基于一种特定的手语。IS的使用取决于交际情境，在交际情境中，手语者灵活、创造性地使用来自自然手语的不同符号以及标志性元素和手势。尽管 ELF 和 IS 之间存在明显的形式差异，但当关注实际的交流过程而不是由此产生的形式时，这两种通用语现象有许多相似之处。事实上，ELF 和 IS 都是可变的交际手段，说话者和手语者会根据他们拥有的不同资源进行情境调整。因此，在 ELF 和 IS 文献中都可以找到关于 ELF 和 IS 概念化困难、多语言资源的作用以及交互过程的类似讨论。这一见解为这两个领域的研究人员从其他模式的通用语交流研究中互惠互利开辟了新的可能性，这促使 ELF 和 IS 研究人员之间需要跨模式合作。