Abstract

The article examines the phenomenon of the semiosphere (the system of sign
based means) as an attribute and a specific dimension of culture. It provides a critique of
semiotic reductionism, which was particularly evident in the works of the representatives of
the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School during the 1960s–1980s. The study demonstrates that the
foundation of semiotic reductionism lay in the disregard by this school’s representatives for
the categories of the ideal and the real and their dialectical relationship. This neglect led to the
identification of culture as a whole with the semiosphere, thereby depriving the very concept of
the semiosphere of its meaning.
The article also presents a semiotic analysis of the traditional Kazakh yurt. It is shown
that the yurt, while being a material phenomenon, is simultaneously imbued with spiritual
and symbolic content and represents a model of the universe, in which every element carries
semiotic and sacred connotations. The vertical and horizontal structures of the yurt are analyzed,
revealing its functional, symbolic, and cosmological levels. Special attention is given to the
elements possessing the greatest degree of sacredness - the shanyrak (the crown of the yurt), the
hearth, and the door - which together embody the idea of the unity of man, the world, and the
cosmos. It is argued that the traditional Kazakh yurt can be regarded as a unique phenomenon
of the cultural semiosphere, in which the material and the spiritual form an indivisible whole.
Keywords: semiosphere, semiosis, culture, sign, meaning, significance, ideal, real,
dwelling, yurt