ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on deontic modals, but many of the conclusions generalize to other forms of normative and evaluative language. It provides a selective survey of prominent theories on the semantics of deontic modals in logic and natural language. The chapter emphasizes some forms of normative language don't allow for the inferences that classical logic trains philosophers to expect. It looks at how deontic modals are understood in the context of modal logic and natural language. The chapter discusses some recent debates and discoveries in the literature on deontic modals in natural language. Contextualism about deontic modals is the view that utterances of deontic modals are sensitive to features of the context in which they are uttered. Relativism is the view that utterances of deontic modals are also sensitive to features of the context in which the utterances are assessed, which can be different from the context in which they are uttered.
