Abstract: The subject of this article is the semiotics of a painting as a work of art. The object of the study is the functioning of the title of a painting as a sign constituting its semiotic space. At the same time, the picture itself is considered as a complex sign that carries out a special kind of communication between the sender and the recipient. The main conclusions of the study are the thesis that semiosis occurring in the process of interaction between the viewer and a work of art is largely based on the artionymic text, as well as the conclusion that follows from it that, despite the generally accepted characteristic of modern culture as a visual culture, the text continues to play an important civilisational role as a conductor and keeper of various kinds of information. When decoding a message conveyed by the complex sign “painting”, under the conditions of limited perception time, the recipient tends to extract information and interpret it through a textual channel (i.e. through an artionym). The novelty of the study lies in considering the artionym not only as a small-format text, but also as a sign involved in the transmission of information in the situation of perceiving a painting by the recipient.

Abstract: The object of this research is the references to the German composer of the XVIII century – Johann Sebastian Bach in poetry of the classic of modern American literature Charles Bukowski. Special attention is given to the poetic-semiotic and ontological aspects of Bach’s motif in the poetic works of C. Bukowski. The author meticulously examines the nature of mentioned references, categorizing them as the three narrative-ontological types or hypostases, in which the German composer appears in the poetry of C. Bukowski, namely: Bach-ideal, Bach-background, and Bach-father figure. The article employs the method of continuous sampling, interpretation and semantic analysis, motivic analysis, as well as biographical and psychological approaches. The author's special contribution into the research of this topic lies in the conclusion on the Bach’s motif in the poetry of C. Bukowski as a variety of ekphrasis, which suggests a verbal representation not of a single artwork, but of the demiurge (in this case it is Bach) as the creator of entirety of his brilliant compositions.

Abstract: The object of the research is hypertextual (interactive) headlines of Russian Internet media resources (newsportals, Internet newspapers, aggregators). The subject of the research is information distortions that can be found in media online headlines. The author of the article examines such aspects of the topic as classification of information distortions and their influence on the perception of information by a recipient. The author focuses on the analysis of theoretical grounds for creating an effective headline in order to underline the discrepancy between established media practices and the situation of hypertextual headlines on Russian internet media resources. The methodology of the research implies contextual and functional semantic analysis of actual material (media online headlines) and at the same time analysis of media manipulations made by headlines that distort the content of a message. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author offers her own classification of information distortions that can be found in hypertextual headlines of Russian online media. The main conclusion of the research is the author's statement that there are two classes of information distortions (cognitive distortions and contextual semantic distortions) as well as kinds of distortions that refer to the aforesaid to classes. The author's special contribution to the topic is the development of a general direction for analysing media headlines in terms of information relevance.