Potential Normative Relationship between Textual Features of Persian Translational Texts and their Acceptance by Readers

Abstract

The present study is concerned with objectively observable factors that facilitate acceptability of translated texts in Persian. It considers textual features like information load (also known as lexical density), range of vocabulary (also known as lexical variety or type-token ratio) and average sentence length to be arguably objective observable factors. The research, that has been carried out as an MA thesis in Translation Studies at Allameh Tabataba’i University, intends to determine whether a norm could be said to operate in the form of a significant relationship between these textual features and acceptance or popularity of translated texts with readers. A comparable corpus of Persian translational and non-translational fiction was built and used as the material for the study.