ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I discuss shìbì and compare shìbì to the yídìng family discussed so far. 1 In addition to expressing strong epistemic necessity and intensification, alone the same lines as yídìng, tiědìng, kěndìng, dŭdìng, bìrán, and bìdìng explored individually in the previous chapters, I argue that shìbì is unique in that its modal base and the ordering compatible with the modal base are underspecified, which need resolution by means of contextual information. Moreover, I also examine whether shìbì is future-oriented and present a case of interaction of temporal sequence of situations with resolution of the underspecified modal base and ordering of shìbì.
