研究习作: motive 和motivation

[hancunxin]

motive 和motivation 都有“动机”的意思，他们的差异在哪呢？

[本贴已被 作者 于 2005年08月24日 21时47分40秒 编辑过]​

 

[xujiajin]

http://view.byu.edu/
你可以在这里先试试BNC的检索结果。看能总结点什么出来。

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作:motive 和motivation

以下是引用 hancunxin 在 2005-8-24 21:47:01 的发言：
motive 和motivation 都有“动机”的意思，他们的差异在哪呢？

Interesting topic. I have had the same question.

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作:motive 和motivation

Sounds like one is more concrete, small (motive):

that the dividing line between the political and the profit motive has never been too sharply defined on Hamnett's agenda
39 A5R sold", but she was equally insistent that the motive behind the sales was Saatchi's desire to shift the
40 A64 household but employing thirty wage-earners or less; or if motive power was used, fifteen wage-earners or less. The
41 A68 so bizarre that it should be accounted for by a motive, not to have at dinner a famously silent person

And the other is more abstract, and grand (motivation):

problem provided the candidate shows talent, flexibility and motivation. Some schools offer a two-year course for students
2 A07 practice. These beliefs can in fact contribute to the motivation of their struggle. As Gramsci points out, the
3 A07 slavery. The argument is clearly inspired by a religious motivation and shows Ulster protestantism to be a vigorous form of
4 A0T 's personality, history, and basic assumptions about human motivation, the orderliness of conduct, and so forth. Now if

 

[xiaoz]

Motive is linked to "police" (and thus crimes?) while motivation is associated with "outcome". Motive is semantically negative while motivation is semantically positive.

 

[xujiajin]

回复：研究习作:motive 和motivation

以下是引用 xiaoz 在 2005-8-24 23:41:58 的发言：
Motive is linked to "police" (and thus crimes?) while motivation is associated with "outcome". Motive is semantically negative while motivation is semantically positive.

Interesting observation. This is convincing to me.

 

[hancunxin]

回复：研究习作:motive 和motivation

以下是引用 xiaoz 在 2005-8-24 23:41:58 的发言：
Motive is linked to "police" (and thus crimes?) while motivation is associated with "outcome". Motive is semantically negative while motivation is semantically positive.

i partly agree with you. i searched the two words on the collocate CD-Rom of COBUILD and found "motive" often collocate with words like " killing","murder","robbery" , which have negative meanings. but i cannot make any conclusion as far as "motivation" is concerned. i think motivation is semantical neutral, not positive as you said.
some other differences i found are :
1. motivation seldom appear in its plural form. it is acturall a countable noun.
2. motivation never collocate with "no", but motive does.
3. motive is elusive, or hard to discover.
4. motive can be modified by words like " major" "main" , which express a meaning of "degree". while motiveation can't .

any improper places, please feel free to tell me! thanks!

 

[xiaoz]

回复：研究习作: motive 和motivation

1) Perhaps.
Your query "motivation" returned 1509 matches in 581 different texts (in 97,626,093 words; freq: 15.46 instances per million words)

Your query "motivations" returned 231 matches in 134 different texts (in 97,626,093 words; freq: 2.37 instances per million words)

Your query "motive" returned 991 matches in 537 different texts (in 97,626,093 words; freq: 10.15 instances per million words)

Your query "motives" returned 1000 matches in 546 different texts (in 97,626,093 words; freq: 10.24 instances per million words)

2) "neverW is too categorical, but that's the central tendency.

Your query "no motive|no motives" returned 33 matches in 25 different texts (in 97,626,093 words; freq: 0.34 instances per million words)

Your query "no motivation|no motivations" returned 7 matches in 6 different texts (in 97,626,093 words; freq: 0.07 instances per million words)

3) No comments.

4) Not quite tue.

Motivation(s): primary, sufficient, prime, main, high, major,

Motive(s): prime, primary, main

以下是引用 hancunxin 在 2005-8-25 11:00:47 的发言：

以下是引用 xiaoz 在 2005-8-24 23:41:58 的发言：
Motive is linked to "police" (and thus crimes?) while motivation is associated with "outcome". Motive is semantically negative while motivation is semantically positive.

i partly agree with you. i searched the two words on the collocate CD-Rom of COBUILD and found "motive" often collocate with words like " killing","murder","robbery" , which have negative meanings. but i cannot make any conclusion as far as "motivation" is concerned. i think motivation is semantical neutral, not positive as you said.
some other differences i found are :
1. motivation seldom appear in its plural form. it is acturall a countable noun.
2. motivation never collocate with "no", but motive does.
3. motive is elusive, or hard to discover.
4. motive can be modified by words like " major" "main" , which express a meaning of "degree". while motiveation can't .

any improper places, please feel free to tell me! thanks!

 

[hancunxin]

Dr. xiao, thanks for your comments. my findings are based only on COBUILD collocate CD-ROM.
they are quite limited in value.

 

[xiaoz]

回复：研究习作: motive 和motivation

Thanks for the interesting topic. My results are based on the BNC (World).

以下是引用 hancunxin 在 2005-8-25 21:49:10 的发言：
Dr. xiao, thanks for your comments. my findings are based only on COBUILD collocate CD-ROM.
they are quite limited in value.

 

[动态语法]

回复：研究习作: motive 和motivation

Entries in the (Online) Longman Dicitonary of Contemparary English:
(BTY, I do think that dictionaries need to be improved, too.)

motive1 [countable]

1 the reason that makes someone do something, especially when this reason is kept hidden:
What do you suppose the killer's motive was?
motive for (doing) something
The police believe the motive for this murder was jealousy.

motive behind
The motives behind the decision remain obscure.
The violence was clearly prompted by political motives.
It's not the kind of thing he'd do unless he had an ulterior motive (=a reason he kept hidden).

2 a motif


motivation
1 [uncountable] eagerness and willingness to do something without needing to be told or forced to do it,
somebody's motivation
efforts to improve employees' motivation
Jack is an intelligent pupil, but he lacks motivation.
a high level of motivation

2 [countable] the reason why you want to do something
motivation for (doing) something
What was your motivation for becoming a teacher?
Escape can be a strong motivation for travel.

motivation behind
There is suspicion about the motivation behind the changes we are debating.

 

[xiaoz]

No wonder that motive appears more frequently in the plural form.

 

[hancunxin]

thanks a lot for your concern on my puzzle.

[本贴已被 作者 于 2005年08月29日 10时55分30秒 编辑过]​