‘Willingness‘ = being prepared to do something (readiness).
In the English Grammar Profile, B1 point 105 in the category of MODALITY is defined:
negative forms of ‘would’ to talk about willingness in the past.
For example:
Dad wanted him buried in the family plot in St Louis, but Pete wouldn’t allow it.
Helen, come on! She wouldn’t wait for you.
The EGP examples include the bare infinitives ‘wait’ and ‘allow’. This is incredibly hard to automatically differentiate in corpora from structures like the ‘second conditional’, reported speech or thought. The best we can do in iWeb is search for:
_VVD * * would _XX
but almost all our examples are reported speech.
1 SAID THAT HE WOULD NOT 422
2 SAID, I WOULDN’T 363
3 ANNOUNCED THAT HE WOULD NOT 263
4 SAID THAT THEY WOULD NOT 261
5 ANNOUNCED THAT IT WOULD NOT 260
6 SAID THAT IT WOULD NOT 188
7 SAID THAT HE WOULDN’T 173
8 KNEW THAT I WOULDN’T 139
9 SAID, I WOULD NOT 130
10 SAID THAT IT WOULDN’T 121
11 KNEW THAT I WOULD NOT 120
12 SAID THAT SHE WOULD NOT 116
13 TOLD ME I WOULDN’T 105
14 PROMISED MYSELF I WOULDN’T 104
15 DECIDED THAT I WOULD NOT 103
16 KNEW THAT HE WOULD NOT 100
17 SAID THE COMPANY WOULD NOT 96
18 TOLD HIM I WOULDN’T 94
19 SAID THAT THEY WOULDN’T 90
20 KNEW THAT IT WOULDN’T 85
21 KNEW THAT IT WOULD NOT 83
22 TOLD ME HE WOULDN’T 79
23 KNEW THAT THEY WOULD NOT 77
24 ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WOULD NOT 76
25 TOLD MYSELF I WOULDN’T 73
26 TOLD ME IT WOULDN’T 73
27 SAID THAT I WOULD NOT 72
28 SAID, IT WOULDN’T 71
29 SAID HE ”WOULDN’T 68
30 SAID. HE WOULD NOT 68
31 TOLD HIM I WOULD NOT 68
32 TOLD ME I WOULD NOT 68
33 TOLD ME THEY WOULD NOT 66
34 TOLD ME HE WOULD NOT 64
35 KNEW THAT HE WOULDN’T 63
36 SAID THE GOVERNMENT WOULD NOT 62
37 SAID THAT SHE WOULDN’T 62
38 SAID THAT I WOULDN’T 62
39 ADDED THAT HE WOULD NOT 62
40 STATED THAT HE WOULD NOT 60
41 TOLD HER I WOULD NOT 59
42 THOUGHT THAT I WOULDN’T 56
TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST EXAMPLE:
I remember I thought that I wouldn’t have friends because I was new.
female Argentina B2
*this is not ‘willingness’ though. It is more a prediction. Still, it shows a high level of complexity.
43 STATED THAT THEY WOULD NOT 55
44 SAID , HE WOULD NOT 55
45 REPLIED THAT HE WOULD NOT 54
46 THOUGHT, ‘ WOULDN’T 51
47 DECIDED THAT I WOULDN’T 51
48 SAID ”I WOULDN’T 50
49 TOLD ME THEY WOULDN’T 49
EXPERT EXAMPLE:
Incidentally, the whole episode brought to light the hypocrisy of some critics who lamented at the poor English,
and yet are not at all critical of Malaysians who could not or would not communicate adequately in the national language.