excerpts from -Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture By Yuri M. Lotman

defining the concept of the semiosphere
"the semiotic space necessary for the existence and functioning of languages, not the sum total of different languages"(123)
"In this respect a language is a function, a cluster of semiotic spaces and their boundaries, which, however clearly defined in the language's grammatical self description, in the reality of semiosis are eroded and full of transitional forms"(123-24)
"In the center the metastructure is "our" language, but on the periphery it is treated as "someone else's" unable to adequately reflect the semiotic reality beneath it: it is like the grammar of a foreign language. As a result, in the center of the cultural space, sections of the semiosphere aspiring to the level of self-description become rigidly organized and self regulation. But at the same time they lose dynamism and having once exhausted their reserve of indeterminacy they became inflexible and incapable of further development. On the periphery... the relationship between semiotic practice and the norms imposed on it becomes even more strained. Texts generated in accordance with these norms hang in the air, without any real semiotic context; while organic creations, born of actual semiotic milieus, come into conflict with artificial norms. This is the area of semiotic dynamism. This is the field of tension where new languages come into being"(134)
shift of language into an area of indeterminacy challenges hegemonic centers
generating new centers , competing centers
eroded and transitional forms