The article gives analysis of author's manuscript dedications inscribed predominantly on the title page. The dedication is a short text, closed in terms of content and composition, in which author ascribes his/her work. The basic pattern of dedicatory formula includes: a name of addressee, a request for reception and a signature of addresser. On one hand dedicatory formulae as the typical minimal texts, serving a polite function of a language, retain continuity and permanence of some of the structures (a few linguistic conventions are repeated); on the other they are distinguished by individual, original modifications concerning mainly well thought out and elaborated forms in comparison with minimal pattern. The stylistic form of a dedication depends largely on the relation between addresser and recipient, social status of interlocutors, type of relations, the choice of functional style, situation in which the action is performed, the time of formation is less important. Even thought contemporary dedications are characterized by more straightforward ways of addressing recipient, diversity of occasions and spontaneity, they still retain solemn nature of statement.