Investigating the Impact of Modern English Novels Translation on the Sentence-length Stylistic Norm of Persian Novels: A Case Study of Nine Classic and Modern Novels

Descriptive Translation Studies has opened bright perspectives to translation studies researchers. Translation norm is one of the fundamental notions in DTS. Despite the norm-based essence of the translation action, few studies have ever been conducted to investigate the norms governing the translation of English novels into Persian. This research aims at investigating the impact of modern English novels translation on the sentence-length stylistic norm in Persian novels. In this regard, three classic Persian novels, three modern Persian novels and three English novels were investigated. Based on the obtained results, the translators’ inclination to sentence-level translation and the higher sentence length average of English novels has led to the transference of long sentences into TTs. In spite of that, the translation of English novels has not considerably influenced the sentence-length stylistic norm in Persian novels. In other words, sentence-length stylistic norm in Persian translations is, to a large extent, different from sentence-length stylistic norm in contemporary Persian novels. Based on the obtained results, the translators’ personal styles and English novels sentence-length are the main factors contributing to the sentence-length stylistic norm in Persian translations. As a concluding remark, description of translation norms governing the translators’ action requires the investigation of the translator’s habitus, translation mechanisms and target culture’s needs.