Desiderative mood

In linguistics, a desiderative (abbreviated desi or des) form is one that has the meaning of "wanting to X". Desiderative forms are often verbs, derived from a more basic verb through a process of morphological derivation.

Sanskrit

In Sanskrit, the desiderative is formed through the suffixing of /sa/ and the prefixing of a reduplicative syllable,^[1] consisting of the first consonant of the root (sometimes modified) and a vowel, usually /i/ but /u/ if the root has an /u/ in it. Changes to the root vowel sometimes happen, as well.

For example:

Base Form	Meaning	Desiderative	Meaning
nayati	"he leads"	nínīṣati	"he wants to lead"
pibāti	"he drinks"	pípāsati	"he wants to drink"
jīvati	"he lives"	jíjīviṣati	"he wants to live"

Meadow Mari

In Meadow Mari, the desiderative mood is marked by the bound morpheme -не- -ne-.

Positive present

Conjugation of the present desiderative positive

Person	1st Dec. pos.	2nd Dec. pos.
1st Singular	лекнем2 (I want to go)	мондынем (I want to forget)
2nd Singular	лекнет2 (You want to go)	мондынет (You want to forget)
3rd Singular	лекнеже2 (He/she/it wants to go)	мондынеже (He/she/it wants to forget)
1st Plural	лекнена2 (We want to go)	мондынена (We want to forget)
2nd Plural	лекнеда2 (You want to go)	мондынеда (You want to forget)
3rd Plural	лекнешт2 (They want to go)	мондынешт (They want to forget)

Negative present

Conjugation of the present desiderative negative

Person	1st Dec. neg.	2nd Dec. neg.
1st Singular	ынем лек2 (I don't want to go)	ынем мондо1 (I don't want to forget)
2nd Singular	ынет лек2 (You don't want to go)	ынет мондо1 (You don't want to forget)
3rd Singular	ынеже лек2 (He/she/it doesn't want to go)	ынеже мондо1 (He/she/it doesn't want to forget)
1st Plural	ынена лек2 (We don't want to go)	ынена мондо1 (We don't want to forget)
2nd Plural	ынеда лек2 (You don't want to go)	ынеда мондо1 (You don't want to forget)
3rd Plural	ынешт лек2 (They don't want to go)	ынешт мондо1 (They don't want to forget)

Japanese

In Japanese, the desiderative takes two main forms: -tai (-たい) and -tagaru (-たがる). Both forms conjugate for tense and positivity, but in different ways: with the -tai ending, the verb becomes an -i adjective, or a conjugable adjective, while the ending -tagaru creates a godan/yodan verb. Though there are other, compound forms to demonstrate wanting, these two alone are demonstrated because they are inflections of the main verb. These two forms are plain/informal in nature, and can be elevated to the normal-polite and other levels through normal methods.

-tai is an absolute statement of desire, whereas -tagaru indicates the appearance of desire. Generally, one does not say things such as 太郎さんが食べたい Tarō wants to eat because one cannot read Tarō's thoughts; instead, one says 太郎さんが食べたがる it appears that Tarō wants to eat.

Godan Verbs

Tense/Aspect	-たい -tai	-たがる -tagaru	Meaning
Non-past Positive	書きたい kakitai	書きたがる kakitagaru	want(s) to write
Non-past Negative	書きたくない kakitakunai	書きたがらない kakitagaranai	don't/doesn't want to write
Past Positive	書きたかった kakitakatta	書きたがった kakitagatta	wanted to write
Past Negative	書きたくなかった kakitakunakatta	書きたがらなかった kakitagaranakatta	didn't want to write

Ichidan Verbs

Tense/Aspect	- -tai	- -tagaru	Meaning
Non-past Positive	食べたい tabetai	食べたがる tabetagaru	wants to eat
Non-past Negative	食べたくない tabetakunai	食べたがらない tabetagaranai	don't/doesn't want to eat
Past Positive	食べたかった tabetakatta	食べたがった tabetagatta	wanted to eat
Past Negative	食べたくなかった tabetakunakatta	食べたがらなかった tabetagaranakatta	didn't want to eat

Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European likely had a desiderative. In some daughter languages like Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic and possibly Celtic, it acquired the meaning of a future tense.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Fortson IV, Benjamin W. (2004), Indo-European Language and Culture, Blackwell Publishing, p. 91, ISBN 1-4051-0316-7