Roleset motivate.01 Verbnet Class: NONE "impelled action":

Roles:

Arg0:motivation


Arg1:impelled agent


Arg2:impelled action

Examples:

person: ns tense: ns aspect: ns voice: ns form: infinitive


all args (-)
Jeffrey Nichols, president of APMS Canada, Toronto precious metals advisers, said there is little *trace* *trace* to motivate gold traders to buy the metal.
Arg0:	*trace* -> *trace* -> little
REL:	motivate
Arg1:	gold traders
Arg2:	to buy the metal

person: ns tense: present aspect: ns voice: active form: full


unstated action (-)
But cosmetics firms still have one big marketing edge: They motivate sales people with commissions.
Arg0:	They
REL:	motivate
Arg1:	sales people
ArgM-MNR:	with commissions

person: ns tense: present aspect: ns voice: passive form: participle


passive, unstated action (-)
The workers can be motivated *trace*, and the company reach its full potential, only when management embraces the employees' perspective.
ArgM-MOD:	can
REL:	motivated
Arg1:	*trace* -> The workers

The unstated action seems to default to "whatever arg1 does".

Roleset motivate.02 Verbnet Class: NONE "justify":

Roles:

Arg0:justifier


Arg1:decision or attitude being shown to be right


Arg2:explicit instrument


Arg3:secondary predication on arg1


Arg4:benefactive, justified to

Examples:

person: ns tense: present aspect: ns voice: passive form: participle


only transitive (-)
The UEP declines to comment, but the group's attorney, Alfred Frawley, says the group's actions are motivated *trace* solely by ``health concerns.''
REL:	motivated
Arg1:	*trace* -> the group's actions
ArgM-ADV:	solely
Arg0-by:	health concerns

person: ns tense: past aspect: ns voice: active form: full


all args (-)
John motivated his dissertation to his committee as worthy of consideration by calling it "super way-cool".
Arg0:	John
REL:	motivated
Arg1:	his dissertation
Arg4-to:	his committee
Arg3-as:	worthy of consideration
Arg2-by:	calling it "super way-cool"

Rolesets might be difficult to distinguish in the transitive. Ontology of the arg1 might be the key: only agentive entities can appear in arg1 of motivate.01, while objects and actions can appear as arg1 of motivate.02. I'm not certain if agentive entities could appear as arg1 of motivate.02, but if they did, their agentive status would be external to the act of motivation.