ABSTRACT
Multilingual settings differ from each other in so many ways that every student of multilingualism must grapple with the problem of how best to systematize or organize the manifold differences that are readily recognizable. In many studies of multilingual behavior the family domain has proved to be a very crucial one. Multilingualism often begins in the family and depends upon it for encouragement if not for protection. The domain concept has facilitated a number of worthwhile contributions to the understanding of bilingualism and language choice. The concept of “domains of language choice” represents an attempt to provide sociocultural organization and socio-cultural context for considerations of variance in language choice in multilingual settings. When systematically interrelated with other sources of variance in language behavior and when based upon underlying analyses of the role-relations and topics most crucial to them, domains of language behavior may contribute importantly to the establishment of dominance configuration summaries.
