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Desiderative mood
Grammatical mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, a desiderative (abbreviated or ) 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. Desiderative mood is a kind of volitive mood.
Sanskrit
In Sanskrit, the desiderative is formed through the suffixing of /sa/ and the prefixing of a reduplicative syllable, 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. The acute accent, which indicates high pitch in Vedic, is usually placed at the first vowel.
For example:
| Base form | Meaning | Desiderative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| nayati | "he leads" | nínīṣati | "he wants to lead" |
| pibati | "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 suffix -не -ne.
Positive present
| 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
| 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: ja (-たい) and ja (-たがる). Both forms conjugate for tense and positivity, but in different ways: with the ja ending, the verb becomes an ja, or a conjugable adjective, while the ending ja (ja suffix) 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.
ja is an absolute statement of desire, whereas ja 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
| Meaning | Non-past | Positive | Negative | Past | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'want(s) to write' | ||||||
| 'don't/doesn't want to write' | ||||||
| 'wanted to write' | ||||||
| 'didn't want to write' |
[[ichidan verb|Ichidan Verbs]]
| Meaning | Non-past | Positive | Negative | Past | Positive | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'wants to eat' | ||||||
| 'don't/doesn't want to eat' | ||||||
| 'wanted to eat' | ||||||
| 'didn't want to eat' |
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European likely had a desiderative. In some daughter languages like Albanian, Greek, Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic and possibly Celtic, it acquired the meaning of a future tense.
References
References
- Fortson IV, Benjamin W.. (2004). "Indo-European Language and Culture". Blackwell Publishing.
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