Ways of managing the dynamics of terminology in multilingual communication

We point out a number of the parameters influencing the dynamics of understanding and the role of terminological variation therein, starting from a case study in the domain of invasion ecology. Over the past fifty years invasion ecology research has been conducted within a wider social milieu of contentious values and politics. Controversy and disagreements have created an intellectually dynamic and emotionally charged atmosphere among researchers. They have often resorted to
evocative language and imagery in their English language articles and this has for instance resulted in the coining of metaphorically motivated terminology. An attempt is made to open up the issue of societal dynamics to the European multilingual reality as we tentatively investigate what happens to metaphorical and evocative language in translated texts (French and Dutch) on invasion ecology.