<p>This article develops a biosemiotic account of motivation as an emergent, value-laden phenomenon linking neurobiological processes, phenomenological experience, and semiotic dynamics. Situating motivation within the broader framework of organism–environment coupling, it argues that motivation is not an isolated psychological state but a relational process mediating between agents, cues, and ecological affordances. Drawing on neurocognitive models of incentive salience (Berridge), phenomenological accounts of intentionality and motivational structure (Brentano, Husserl), and biosemiotic theories of absential phenomena (Deacon) and concomitant processes (Kockelman), the paper proposes a revised triadic schema in which the motivated subject functions simultaneously as interpretant and agent. This synthesis reframes motivation as an axiological dynamic — a felt orientation toward value — that shapes and is shaped by semiotic scaffolding within living systems. By integrating biological, cognitive, and semiotic perspectives, the article offers a framework for understanding how motivational processes participate in the generation of meaning, with implications for both the study of animal and human sign-use and the evaluation of artificial systems that simulate, but do not instantiate, motivational dynamics.</p>