Exploring the semantics of English desiderative predicates such as hope, wish, and want, this paper argues that two aspects should be considered for the proper semantic analysis of them. One is that desiderative predicates are involved in expressing different types of preferences or desires, depending on the context of use. The context-dependent characteristics can be accounted for not in terms of the semantics of propositional attitudes, a traditional semantic analysis of desideratives in the field of formal semantics, but rather in terms of Kratzer’s (1991) context-dependent approach to modality. The other aspect is that in contrast to doxastic modals, buletic modals might be used even in the situation where the agent has contradictory desires. In order to account for this, this paper proposes an alternative semantic approach to the desideratives, departing from doxastic modality. This is how we can explain their occurrence in such a conflicting situation.