Abstract
This paper aims to investigate two aspect-related morphemes ‘Ø’ and ‘le#’ in Hakka. The phonetically unrealized ‘Ø’ is the Hakka equivalent of the Mandarin verbal ‘-le’; its existence, however, cannot be amply proved without making reference to the contrast between Hakka and its sisterhood languages/dialects like Mandarin and Taiwan Southern Min. The sentence-final ‘le#’, the correspondent of the Mandarin sentential ‘le#’, denotes a change of state and involves speakers’ subjective attitudes toward the proposition expressed by a sentence. It is thus treated as a modal particle. Situation types play an important role in determining the aspectual meaning of a sentence. Both ‘Ø’ and ‘le#’ can co-occur with States, Activities, Accomplishments, and Achievements.