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I just read the short story 高瀬舟 and I got a bit confused by this sentence:

> ［...］庄兵衛、まだどこやらに腑に落ちぬものが残っているので、なんだかお奉行さまにきいてみたくてならなかった。

In particular the last part of it, きいてみたくてならなかった

きいてみたい + くて + なる-in-negative-past-tense-form

In this some old fashioned form of きいかなくてはならない ? By the flow of the story I
claim it means something like "I have to ask the magistrate ...", but I am not
entirely sure if this is really correct.
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2015-04-04T16:32:09.363
23597
2018-02-14T00:35:48.317
2018-02-14T00:35:48.317
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question
grammar
Old fashioned grammar structure?　「きいてみたくてならなかった」
No, it is neither old-fashioned nor a form of きかなくてはならない.

This form of ～てならない means "really, really ～". It is similar to the forms
～てしかたがない・～てしょうがない・～てたまらない. Here are a few examples:

>   * ワープロを始めたせいか、この[頃]{ごろ}目が疲れ **てしょうがない** → It might be because I started
> using a word processor, because lately my eyes are _really_ tired.
>   * いよいよあした帰国かと思うと、嬉しく **てしかたがありません** → Thinking about finally returning to
> my home country tomorrow, it make me _super_ happy.
>   * どうしたんだろう。今日は朝からのどが渇い **てたまらない** → What's happening? Since this morning
> I've been _really, really_ thirsty.
>   * あの人はどうも悪いことを考えているのではないかという気が **してならない** → I _really_ get the feeling
> that that guy is somehow thinking about something bad.
>

This is just きいてみたい in the paste tense of this form: きいてみたくてならなかった. So it is
says something like "...for some reason I _really_ wanted to ask you, Mr.
Magistrate."

Note that the **て** here is _extremely_ important for the meaning. If it were
just きいてみたくならなかった, it would say "I did not become wanting to ask you" which is
almost the opposite meaning.

* * *

All examples taken from _どんな時どう使う日本語表現文型５００中・上級_
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2015-04-04T18:35:05.443
23600
2015-04-05T02:27:53.227
2015-04-05T02:27:53.227
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answer