Deontic modality refers to possibility related ability or permission. van der Auwera and Ammann (2008) provide English examples such as <i>You <b>may</b> leave now</i> and <i>The children <b>can</b> swim across the lake</i>. <br><br>

A ‘yes’ value to this property indicates that the language expresses this sort of modality with a verb. English is an example of such a language, despite the fact that some (though not all) English modal verbs have particular properties such as lack of overt subject-verb agreement. <br><br>

<b>Reference</b><br>

van der Auwera, Johan & Ammann, Andreas. 2008. Situational Possibility.
In Haspelmath et al. (2008), chapter 74.
Available online at <a href=â€http://wals.info/feature/74â€>http://wals.info/feature/74</a href>.