8世纪末，爱丁堡大学历史教授亚历山大•F•泰特勒(Alexander Fraser Tytler，1947—1814年)在《论翻译的原则》(Essay on the Principles of Translation, 1791)一书中系统地提出了进行翻译和评判翻译的三条基本原则：
(Essay on the Principles of Translation)一书中提出的著名的“三原则”：
(1)A translation should give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work.(译文应当完全复写出原作的思想)
(2)The style and manner of writing should be of the same character as that of the original. (译文的风格和笔调应与原文的性质相同)
(3)A translation should have all the ease of the original composition. (译文应和原文同样流畅)
