Disruptions in Translational Intertextuality across Multilingual Translations of a Historical Inscription

Abstract

This is the first research study to investigate translational intertextuality across multilingual translations of a historical inscription through retranslation and relay translation. It aims to offer a translational chain by linking the studied translations that involve different translational strategies and reveals intra- and multi-lingual alterations within the collection of the analyzed works. The corpus of the study consists of six academic works – on the interlingual translations of a historical inscription in Alanya, Türkiye – in five different languages, including the source language. To analyze the corpus, qualitative content analysis and purposeful sampling are applied. It is revealed that the translations tend to change their textuality through semantic alterations and application of translational phenomena, and thanks to the alterations, it is seen that the source text evolved through translations. It is suggested that translational intertextuality has a crucial role in the creation of new texts in a target language based on a translation, and the studied corpus illustrated that any disruptions in translational intertextuality affect the other rings of the translation chain, directly or indirectly helping to disseminate false knowledge or/and foreignizing the resultant text for the target audience. Moreover, it is highlighted that an ulterior translation can be affected by these disruptions; therefore, the disrupted prospective translational intertextuality could influence the intertextual ties across disciplines established by translations.