Can the volitional form be used to nominate yourself for something?

Question

I did a quick search on this site to see if I could find any answer to this and found this question: Does the volitional form of a verb mean both "let's" and "I want to"?

But unfortunately that didn't really clarify things enough for me.

I know that the volitional form can be used to say "Lets do ~" or "Shall we do ~?" but I wanted to know if it can be used for your own actions without including the meaning of "Lets".

For example could the volitional form be used to nominate yourself for something?

I know that if you wanted to say something like "I will go" you could probably say "私が行くよ", or something to that effect.

But can I also use this to nominate myself to go? For example if a group of people were together and it was decided that only one person needed to go somewhere would it be correct to say "私が行こう"?

I'm under the assumption that saying something like just "行こう" could be interpreted as "Lets go" including everyone in the group, but by being specific about yourself by saying "私が行こう" it sounds like you are nominating yourself.

Is this correct or am I just making stuff up?

I'm sorry if my explanation isn't sufficient enough, but if you need me to add any more detail please let me know and I will try the best I can.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Yes, it can be used to nominate yourself in specific situations.

I see two main cases.
Case 1: Do something for someone but in a question, as you tried to explain,

But can I also use this to nominate myself to go? For example if a group of people were together and it was decided that only one person needed to go somewhere would it be correct to say "私が行こう"?

You would say "私が行こうか？" You could even skip the 私が if the context allows it.

Another example: you see an old lady using stairs with big luggages and want to help her: You just need to say: "手伝いましょうか？"

Case 2: if you add と思います, it means "I want to"

休みをとろうと思ってます => I want to take holidays. (I'm thinking about taking holidays)