Normative
In a wider sense, a norm tends to mean some standard for evaluating or making judgments about behavior or outcomes.
That's a lotta abstract words in a row.
It usually amounts to talking about how something should be.
There is an occasionally-useful distinction between
- evaluative standards - we should do what seems to be good, for the reason that its effect seems to be good
- descriptive standards, which are more the "do what is standard/typically done" sort
- which is sometimes even fairly prescriptive
(Confusingly, both can be called 'normative', because both are still about judging what you should do)
Normativity has few specialized meanings in specific fields
In philosophy and law, normativity mostly refers to what society collectively considers good, desirable, or permissible.
In philosophy's ethics, normative ethics is about telling us the things that should or shouldnt be done.
In linguistics (and also e.g. law),
normative language refers to text that endorses a certain course of action.
For example, "I think you should keep your promise" is a normative expression in the above sense.
(formulations using 'should', 'will', etc. tend to be pretty normative)
In linguistics, normativity isn't just a topic being discussed, but is often also encoded via phrasing that we might call its own modality (making it a little more than a topic or stylistic choice).
For context, modality roughly means expressing permissibility, desirability, likeliness, and/or truthfulness.
For example
- deontic modality means you want a certain action (whether according to morality, practical rationality, 'necessary according to the rules', or laws)
- epistemic modality expresses what is argued to probably be true according to evidence, reasoning, beliefs
- intrinsic modality and disposition modality are more about what options there are
For example, legal text (and to a lesser degree jurisprudence) contain ample normative language, because a good part concerns itself with expressing normative ethics (what should or shouldn't be done), or what practicalities those turn into when you apply that in everyday life, and/or a judge has a say.
(Given that legal text tends to be a little more precise at normative language, they can be of interest to linguuistic research)
See also: