EN
The main goal of the essay is to discuss and elaborate on the communicative aspects of academic matriculation and inauguration ceremonies that take place at Polish universities. The word inauguration (lat. inauguratio) implies a ceremonial induction into something. Still, in Polish, it is very commonly used with an adjective ‘solemn’ or ‘ceremonious’ to mark the character of the official and ceremonial first day of the academic year. What is more, the ceremony is almost always organized in accordance with a commonly accepted prototypical program which divides the ceremony into two parts: the primary – traditional part and the additional – supplementary part. The careful analysis of the ceremony from the perspective of communication studies and communicology can shed a new light on the interpretation of the importance of such events. According to various representatives and supporters of the theory of speech acts, the ceremonies can be described as specific acts of communication that can be considered as perlocution acts. The author of the essay tries to elaborate on the understanding of the ceremonies from a broader sociological, communicological perspective.