したく in 「戦いをしたくありません.」


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?




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.




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.

