An Analysis of the Initial Norms in Literary Translations ‎Published in Iran

Abstract

Toury’s descriptive translations studies approach was taken as the present study’s theoretical framework to investigate initial norm of translation. This kind of norm, introduced by Toury (1995) is responsible for limiting translator’s choice to produce either acceptable or adequate translations. To do this, translational shifts (non-obligatory shifts) were extracted, analyzed and commented on within the corpus of the study, which was parallel and comparable involving four English noble-winning novels along with their Persian translations produced in four different decades in Iran (1350s – 1390s). Finally, the frequency and percentage of the norms which were active in each book in the corpora as well as their frequency in the entire corpora were computed. Then translation works were judged as more acceptable to less acceptable ones. It seemed that translators were inclined to produce more acceptable translations rather than adequate ones in order to make their work readable and attractive for the target audience of Iran.