deontic

1.形容詞C2

釋義

concerning duty, obligation, or permission — used mainly of language and formal logic that expresses what people ought or are allowed to do

例句

Arjun explained how deontic verbs like 'must' express obligation in his syntax class.

deontic + noun: deontic verbs

Zuri's dissertation examined deontic modality in three West African languages.

collocation: deontic modality

同義詞

deontological
more common in moral philosophy; often interchangeable but belongs primarily to ethics rather than linguistics
prescriptive
broader and less technical; describes anything that tells people what to do
normative
wider still; refers to anything that sets a standard, common in social sciences

反義詞

epistemic
in linguistics, the contrasting category of modality that concerns knowledge and belief rather than obligation

deontic + noun (modality, logic, verb, operator)

Almost always used before a noun, most commonly in the phrases 'deontic modality' (linguistics) and 'deontic logic' (philosophy).

❌Epistemic and deontic modality are the same thing.

✅Deontic modality concerns obligation and permission; epistemic modality concerns knowledge, belief, and certainty.

💡These are two distinct categories of modal meaning in linguistics.

deontic — adjective