Polyphony is examined as a linguistic, literary, and musical concept. The history of this last is traced to the Middle Ages where it appeared as a musical style alternative to homophony: the support of homophonic over polyphonic music by the Roman Catholic Church at the 16th-century Council of Trent is noted. M. Bakhtin's interpretation of Dostoevsky's fiction (1981), J. Lacan's account of the unconscious (1978), and O. Ducrot's analysis of the utterance (1987) in terms of polyphony are outlined. The application of the concept and metaphor of polyphony in Brazilian linguistics is examined in light of these interpretations. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 3)