newbie: grammar, 成为

[fij]

Dear All,

Could someone please provide a translation of “我想成为学习中文的好学生”?

I do not understand the role of "学习" in this sentence. I think that "成为" means: I would like to turn into something, and "中文的好学生" explains that this something(someone) that I would like to turn into is a good student of the Chinese language.

But then what does "学习" do in this sentence? Does this tell that I will practice in order to become a good student? If yes, then does the structure of this particular sentence tell me that this an "in order to" ( = for that reason) sentence?

Maye the biggest help would be a chapter/topic title found in grammar books or the URL of an online resource.

Many thanks,

Illes

http://hal.elte.hu/fij

[Glenn]

I'd say "I would like to be a good student of Chinese" is a good translation, but it doesn't capture everything that's going on there (as you're well aware). 学习中文的学生 is obviously "a student who studies Chinese", right? So 学习中文的好学生 would be "a good student who studies Chinese". It seems strange to my way of thinking, but it's probably perfectly fine for a Chinese sentence. That is, the thing that makes it seems strange is the 好. I'm guessing that's exactly what's got you tripped up. I'm chalking it up to just a different way of thinking. Of course, if there's anything deeper going on there I'd like to know as well.

[daofeishi]

学习中文: "study Chinese"

学习中文的学生： "a student who studies Chinese" (i.e. a student of Chinese)

学习中文的好学生: "a good student who studies Chinese" (i.e. a successful student of Chinese)

我想成为学习中文的好学生: "I want to become a good student who studies Chinese" (i.e. I want to become a successful student of Chinese)

学习 means to study, as it always does. The 的 turns the verb phrase 学习中文 into a modifier of the noun 学生. In this case, you can think of it as being similar to the relative pronoun "who" in English: VP的学生 = a student who VP.