从历史哲学上来分析，人这个主体具有社会属性。因此，主体的可变性是一个永无休止的变数。人类社会经历了无数变化，将变得越来越进步；人这个主体的可变性也是一个无限量数，人的主体素质将越来越高。
从翻译学上说，主体的可变性是永无休止的，翻译标准的可变性也是永无止境的。翻译学上不存在水恒的、不变的标准。
翻译标准的变化取决于主体价值观的变化。主体翻译价值观的变化，取决于以下六个范畴中的复杂变化（值、现象或倾向）：
（一）语义范畴：主要涉及语义含蕴的发展变化问题，包括外延意义和内涵意义；
（二）语用范畴：主要涉及语言的使用者与社会的关系问题，具体表现为言语交际模式与效果；
（三) 语法范畴：主要涉及语言本身的准确性及语法合格性(grammaticality)；就翻译而言，具体表现为TLT的可读性（readability）和可接受性(acceptability) 程度；
（四）审美范畴：主要涉及主体对审美对象的审美信息的审美判断和要求；就翻译而言，具体表现为语际转换审美效果；
（五）逻辑范畴：主要涉及语言的逻辑规范问题。
（六）文化范畴：主要涉及文化翻译的原则、要求及表现法规范问题。
以上六个方面的发展变化，都是我们判断和评定翻译的价值和水准应该考虑的因素。一百年来，由于人类社会的显著发展，主体发生了很大的变化，价值观也随之发生了很大的变化。即以变化最缓慢的英语语法范畴而论，在“管域”(government）和“不一致性”（incoherence）这两个方面发生的变化就不小。以下例子中所指出的错误部分，在十九世纪英语中认为是不合格的（斜体，方括号中为纠正部分），今天来看都已经不是什么问题了(纠正也就成了多余)；
（1）“管域”方面：
• In considering the life of Seneca we are not only dealing with a life which was rich in memorable incidents,… but also [with] the life of one who climbed the loftiest peaks of the moral philosophy of Paganism. ——F. W. Farrar, D. D., Seekers after God (1875), Introduction, p. 6. [Read, "dealing not only with."]
• They are interwoven with the context, and seem to me necessary not more to the accuracy of the extracts than of the portrait I seek to give of the writer. —-—Sir J. T. Coleridge, Memoir of John Keble (2d ed., 1869), vol. i, ch. v, p. 80. ["not more" should follow "accuracy."]
• Every composition is fairly liable to criticism, both in regard to its design and to its execution, but the latter must be judged with reference to the former. --Sir J. T. Coleridge, Memoir of John Keble (2d ed., 1869), vol. ii, ch. xiv, p. 340. [Read, "in regard both."]
• We were only permitted to stop for refreshment once, by the way; so that without the provision of cold fowl, bread,and water which we only happened to think of the moment before setting out, our situation would have been somewhat deplorahle. —Mrs. Ellis, Summer and Winter in the Pyrenees, ch. i. p. 2. [The first "only" should follow "refreshment"; the second," think of.”]
(2）[不一致]方面：
• From the time that he appears in the presence of the Iord, in a scene which we must say is not so shocking to our feelings of reverence as it seems to have been in some cases. -Blackrwood's Magazine, December, 1872, p. 691. [The writer means "as it seerns to have heen to the feelings of some persons."]
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