motive - motif

 

(L) A floral motif. (R) A floral motive. 

Now here’s an interesting thing – using motive when motif is the word we want. It doesn’t happen all that often – and I’ve never seen it happen the other way around – but it’s happened often enough over the years that we can see it’s a definite sore spot that needs some soothing Bad Article cream gently applied to it. Definitions first of all, and at first glance they’re nice and simple:

motive  (n) what induces a person to act in a particular way.motif  (n) 1) theme that is repeated and developed in an artistic work. 2) decorative design or pattern.
3) ornament sewn separately on a garment.

Now let’s play Good Cop/Bad Cop:

Bad Cop:
1a) Our summer collection is enhanced by a striking floral motive.
2a) The first few notes of Beethoven’s legendary Moonlight Sonata form a recurring motive throughout the piece.

Good Cop:
1b) Our summer collection is enhanced by a striking floral motif.
2b) The first few notes of Beethoven’s legendary Moonlight Sonata form a recurring motif throughout the piece.

Remember this very simple rule: If you’re talking about art, music or fashion, then use motif. If you’re talking about criminal activity, or wondering why someone did something, then use motive. ‘Four men were found dead by the side of a road in Poznań today. Police apprehended the killers almost immediately, but it is not yet known what their motive was.’ ‘Did you hear? Aga left her husband, emptied their bank account and took the kids to Sweden!’ ‘Oh no! Why would she do that? What were her motives?’

There's one more thing about all this that you might find interesting: motif is a French word which has connections to motive, but motive is a Latin word, which is all about movement and impetus, both physical and abstract. Weird eh? At any rate, for our purposes – i.e. those of translating in modern English – this is both confusing oraz irrelevant. Or not? What do you think?

 The classic 'dah-dah-dah-dah de dah, dah-de-dah'  you hear whenever Darth Vader appears on screen is a musical motif. Beethoven was also very good at these. Good old Beety.