We discuss various bosonization schemes from a path integral perspecti
ve. Our analysis shows that the existence of different bosonization sc
hemes, such as abelian bosonization of non-abelian models and non-abel
ian bosonization of fermions with colour and flavour indices, can be u
nderstood as different ways of factoring out a dynamically trivial cos
et which contains the fermions. From this perspective follows the impo
rtance of the coset model in ensuring the comet superselection rules o
n the bosonic level. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.