| The concept of metadiscourse was initially known as"discourse about discourse". It is now used by writers to organize their texts into a coherent and reader-friendly writing, and to engage the readers by signaling their attitudes towards both the readers and the propositions. All these functions of metadiscourse are realized in the text by different types of metadiscourse markers.The present study focuses on metadiscourse marker"yòu"in Hong Lou Meng and its two English versions, attempting to compare how it is used in different languages and different translated texts. Firstly, a functional classification of"yòu"in Hong Lou Meng is generated based on the investigation of the corpus. Then the author carries out extensive analysis of the representation as well as the omission of the use of"yòu"across the two languages as well as the two translated texts. The methods used in this study are primarily corpus-driven because all the major findings yielded from this study are drawn from the corpus.Metadiscourse marker"yòu"occurs 3732 times in Hong Lou Meng (those cases used in poetry and idioms are not included). It mainly has two functional categories: textual function and interpersonal function. Results of this study suggest that: 1) Four subfunctions are found under the category of textual function of"yòu", that is, sequential marker, contrastive marker, coordinate marker, and additive marker; and two subfunctions are found under the category of interpersonal function of"yòu", namely, implicative marker and commentary marker; 2) The translation of"yòu"is closely related to its function in specific context. On the one hand, most functions of"yòu"in the original text are represented in both of the two English versions. On the other hand, all of the functions are found with different degrees of omission in the translations. Variations in the use of"yòu"exist not only between the original text and the target text, but also between the two translated texts.Apart from its contribution to the study of"yòu"in Chinese and its translations in English, the present study also has some pedagogical implications in the fields of English writing as well as translation practice and teaching. Firstly, during the writing process, the writers should be aware of all types of metadiscourse markers and try to employ them in order to make a successful writing. Secondly, the application of corpus-driven approach should be advocated in translation practice and teaching. The presentation of various contexts of certain expression can help the translators make their translation more accurate and authentic. Moreover, the researchers can do comparative studies across different translated texts of the same original text through quantitative analysis.
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