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In

> 戦いを **したく** ありません.
>
> [He] didn't want to start a war.

is したく the adverbial form of したい? Literally speaking, does this sentence means
something like

> "wanting to do a war"-ly doesn't exist.

where "-ly" is my attempt to adverbialize the phrase "wanting to do a war"? :)
Of course this is a weird way to phrase this in English, but is this
(grammatically) what's going on in the Japanese sentence?
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2023-08-15T19:19:15.780
100663
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grammar translation adverbs
したく in 「戦いをしたくありません.」
I think it is just a more polite/formal way to mean したくない ex:
勉強したくないの？そうです、勉強したくありません。
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2023-08-15T19:41:38.613
100664
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answer
Just as ありません is a polite version of ない, したくありません is a (very) polite version
of したくない.

Etymologically, many i-adjective conjugations are formed by 〜く + ある, among
them the 〜くない in question, but also 〜くあった (contracted to 〜かった), or if a
particle needs to be inserted (〜くはある).

The ない of negative verbs is not a full-fledged i-adjective like the たい-forms
are, and the inability to replace ない with ありません when dealing with negated
verbs is one aspect this is reflected in.
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> is したく the adverbial form of したい? Literally speaking, does this sentence
> means something like "wanting to do a war"-ly doesn't exist.

Yes, we could say it is. Even in the plain form したくない. But I would translate
it literally as:

> It doesn't exist as wanting to do war

This way, you highlight the adverb form better compared to the "ily" version.

Another example of this is when you want to say that someone has an additional
quality.

> 彼女は優しくもある  
>  She exists also as being kind. -> She is also kind (meaning she is
> beautiful, charismatic, popular and additionally kind).

Keep in mind that 彼女も優しい means "She is also kind" (meaning some people are
kind and she is kind too)
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