Abstract: The study on modal verbs has been a topic of heated discussion in linguistics at home and abroad. Many studies on translation of Honglou Meng have been conducted in recent years, but few have been carried out from a pragmatic perspective of modal verbs. Firstly, this paper analyzes the domestic studies, together with the modal values and pragmatic orientation of modal verbs, using a corpus-based descriptive approach to show the distribution of modal verbs in Hawkes and Yangs English versions. Secondly, this paper exemplifies the pragmatic orientation of modal verbs in the two English versions in terms of epistemic, dynamic and deontic modalities, pointing out the necessity to consider what pragmatic orientation can be adopted to construct the identity relationship between the given subject and the other person.

Key words: Honglou Meng, studies on translation of Honglou Meng, modal verb, modal value, pragmatic orientation

摘要： 情态动词是国内外语言研究的热点话题。在分析国内“红译”研究现状、情态动词的情态量值及语用取向的基础上，采用语料描述分析法，考察情态动词在霍译和杨译中的分布情况；通过实例解读两译本中情态动词的认识情态、动力情态、道义情态的语用取向，指出翻译时要考虑通过何种语用取向来构建说话者认同主语与他者之间的身份关系。

关键词: 《红楼梦》, “红译”, 情态动词, 情态量值, 语用取向