Polyphonic discourse: Overlapping in Samoan ceremonial greetings

This paper analyzes Samoan ceremonial greetings and shows that, although their sequential organization recognizes only two parties - greeters and greeted - the internal organization of each part of the exchange acknowledges subtle individual differences in terms of status and ability to verbally perform. Participants routinely overlap one another within and across turns not at transition-relevant places but more in the fashion of a nonmusical version of canonic counterpoint. The interlocking organization of words and turns in the greetings is analyzed as a phonosymbolic construction of both sameness and differentiation, a type of public discourse in which an inter-actionally constituted sociopolitical body is represented as only partially unified. These findings are used to suggest that (i) even in the most cohesive social moments, when relatedness reigns, distinctiveness may be symbolically reproduced, and (ii) cohesiveness is problematic in hierarchical social systems as much as in egalitarian ones