motif和motive(動機)的詞根都是mot,內涵是“動”，即“不斷出現的結構、意象、場面、動作、符號、或文學方法”，目的是強化、推動主題（theme）.

There are hundreds and thousands of writers in the world and they write in all genres, forms and categories of language, but some books stand out from the milieu, either because of the story or the style of the author. Good writing fully engages the reader and carries him into the story and circumstances. News reports or informative pieces may not need much of embellishment as the matter or story covered needs to be presented in a crisp and straightforward way. However, if it is a creative writing piece, and especially when it comes to fiction, the writer has to absorb the reader into the pages of the book and make him feel one with the characters or situations. To do this, he has at his disposal numerous literary devices to spice up his work and make it gripping, interesting and very believable.A literary device is a language aid used by a writer to add spice, drama and excitement to his writing and to suck the reader into the imaginary world or circumstance he has created through his writing. There are hundreds of such literary devices available and the author can choose freely depending on his writing style and genre. Some common literary devices used are Similes, Metaphors, Allegory, personification, Oxymoron etc. Let us look at two not often talked about, but nevertheless, important literary devices in detail: Motif and Theme.A motif is a recurring pattern in a writing work that helps to strengthen the main theme. It can be concrete or symbolic and keeps showing up reinforcing the ideas or underlying theme. A motif can be a subject, an idea, an image or event that the writer introduces at regular intervals to highlight certain events or ideas. In layman’s terms we may say that motifs are noticeably repeated hints pointing towards what is coming in the story. Prince Charming, beautiful maidens, wicked step mothers, happy endings – all these are examples of motifs in fairy tales.Every written piece has a purpose. The writer wants to convey something to the reader – an idea, a thought process or a concept. He does this through his theme. The theme is not the story line, nor is it a chronology of events; it is much broader than that. A story may have one or more themes that the writer wants to convey to his reader and connect with them. Themes can be death, love, loneliness, friendship, honor, emancipation of women etc.As both Motif and Theme are very similar and closely related, one finds it difficult to distinguish between them easily. Here are a few pointers to make it easy to understand:If the writer takes revenge as his theme, he will highlight it by using related motifs, like crime being committed, someone being wronged, person going through agony, protagonist planning revenge – all pointers to the main theme of the writing.In conclusion, one can liken the theme of a piece of writing to a beautiful fabric. The color and appearance of the fabric is decided by the theme. The motifs are like designs interspersed all along the fabric keeping in tune with the main theme. For example, if the theme of the fabric is Mexican ethnic, the motifs will be of related patterns like the sun, Aztec symbols, boleros etc. They are not the same, but one helps in accentuating the other.

motif

motif與theme的區別

theme表示的是一篇文章的主旨，核心。範圍比motif要更大，就相當於我們人類的心臟。

而motif是用來強調主旨大意，用來暗示文章的寫作主題的，相當於遍佈我們人類身體的血管。

舉例說明

如果一篇文章的theme是愛情，那麼motifs就是帥氣的男主角，嬌弱的男主角，以及男女主角之間的化學反應等，反正就是來烘托主題的啦。

根據線上詞源詞典（Online Etymology Dictionary）上的解釋，兩者的區別如下：

1. motif（n.）

"theme, predominant feature that recurs often in an artistic or dramatic work," 1848, from French motif "dominant idea, theme," from Medieval Latin motivus "moving, impelling," from past participle stem of movere "to move" .

中文對照翻譯：主題。名詞。

“在同一個藝術作品或者戲劇作品中經常反覆出現的主題和先決性的特質。”

1848，出自於法語單詞Motif，意為“主導性的想法，主題。”

出自於中世紀拉丁語motivus，意為“移動的，驅使性的”。

來自於movere的過去分詞詞根，意為“去移動。”

2. theme (n.)

early 14c., "subject or topic on which a person writes or speaks," from Old French tesme (13c., with silent -s- "indicating vowel length" [OED], Modern French thème) and directly from Latin thema "a subject, thesis," from Greek thema "a proposition, subject, deposit," literally "something set down。"

中文對照翻譯：主題。名詞。

出自古法語單詞tesme（13世紀，帶有一個不發音、只表示母音長度的“s”字母，後來現代法語將這個單詞改寫為thème）和另一外一個直接來自於拉丁語的單詞thema，意為“一個主題或者命題。”

出自希臘語的thema，意為“一項提議，一個主題或者一件寄存物品。”含有將某件事情定下來之意。

以上，可以對比參照。

如果覺得一些單詞的釋義決定難以區分，可以查英漢詞典，或者同義詞、近義詞詞典，再或者詞源詞典。