# 转化为



## bankei yotaku

Hello, I'm back to study a bit of Chinese after some runaway years. Now, with the amazing 文林 software I'm trying to make myself familiar with the language, beyond learning by exercise new characters. As yet, the program provides an astounding vocabulary tool which allows to hint at translations by instant look-up. Anyway I pasted in it this article by 新华时政 and looked it up a bit. I've found this construction which I don't understand clearly:

我国社会主要矛盾已经转化为  -->  (In) our country (and) society (the) main contradiction (has) -already- changed

I put "已经" between dashes because of the issue I have, since I wonder what is the use here of "为": wèi translates in "for, on account of" according to the vocabulary, but the following characters are "人民", and it can be read both in "化为", "change into, become", and in "为人", "behave, conduct oneself". As yet, the vocabulary does not list a word in which 民 goes with the following character(s) which are 日益. I thus assume that it must be read "人民", and not "为人". Nonetheless, in this context the vocabulary does not list any word by which I could read "化为" or "转化为". Can I here read "转" by itself and so "化为" as a word? I don't believe so, because it sounds like a repetition of sort, since they have very similar meanings. I then wonder what the function of "为" here is: should it be understood on its own connecting this sentence and the following as causal modifier? That is, "(In) our country (and) ... changed (and this is said) on account of ...".

Another question here for me arises anyway: since the action is complete (I've read the translation to the sentence - which is anyway intuitive - on newspapers) shouldn't there be "了" in place of "为"? Or "已经" meaning "already", that is, something that has happened and concluded, absolves to that function here?


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## Ghabi

Hello *bankei yotaku*, you should have provided the complete sentence and the source article to facilitate the discussion. According to a search, the complete sentence seems to be:

我国社会主要矛盾已经转化为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾

which can be parsed as:

我国社会主要矛盾|已经|转化为|人民日益增长的美好生活需要|和|不平衡不充分的发展|之间的|矛盾

You can understand 转化为 as "transformed into". You can also use 转化成.

转化了 would mean "transformed (something)", not "transformed into (something)".


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## SuperXW

Ghabi has given the complete answer.
By the way, fundamental meanings of 为 includes:

Pronounce: wei2
"to become" 转化为, 化为, 成为, 变为
"as" 作为一个人, 身为领导
"do, behave, perform" 亲力亲为, 为官之道

Pronounce: wei4
"for" 因为, 为了


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## bankei yotaku

Ghabi, SuperXW many thanks for your replies. I got the construction clearly now.

Your parsing also, Ghabi, puts some light on another issue I had with this sentence, about which I'll make another thread perhaps.

Thanks also for the tip on posts' format! 

The whole sentence could then be translated like this?

我国社会主要矛盾已经转化为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾  --> (In) our country (and) society (the) main contradiction (has) transformed into (the) contradiction between (the) people increasingly growing demands (for) (a) fine existence and (a) not full unbalanced develop(ment)


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## SuperXW

"What we now face is the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life."
This is what appears in the official English report.


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## Shooting Stars

My suggestion for 转化为 is to evolve into.


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## SuperXW

bankei yotaku said:


> 我国社会主要矛盾已经转化为人民日益增长的美好生活需要和不平衡不充分的发展之间的矛盾  --> (In) our country (and) society (the) main contradiction (has) transformed into (the) contradiction between (the) people increasingly growing demands (for) (a) fine existence and (a) not full unbalanced develop(ment)



Chinese would generally understand 我国社会主要矛盾 as "the main contradiction of the society of our country", NOT "(In) our country (and) society..."
不平衡不充分的发展 means "unbalanced and inadequate development", NOT "not full unbalanced develop(ment)".


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## bankei yotaku

Thanks SuperXW. I come to realize then that the reading in the sentence order goes straight backward in understanding it. Is this a general rule? How are dependencies determined there, between "society" and "country" and "main contradiction", that in translation are tied by genitive case? Is this case implied by the construction? Understood even though not expressed? Is this always the case when there are no other peculiar markers, as zai4, 在, "at", or wei4, 为了, "for" as you said above?


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## hx1997

Yes, it's implied. We infer it from the semantics of the text. Granted, grammar rules that describe how it works may exist somewhere out there, but as native speakers we just infer it (so I think, at least). It's not a general rule; it depends on the context, the logic.


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## bankei yotaku

hx1997, many thanks for your reply. I think I did not expressed myself correctly in my last post. I was asking two distinct questions:

1) (this one did not come through) whether in translating FROM Chinese the word order is generally reversed, from the bottom up, as it is in this sentence; since we read the occurrence of "矛盾", "contradiction", at the end of the phrase in the beginning of it in the english translation, and so it goes for the other elements so that "人民日益增长的美好生活需要" comes at the end. They switch sides. Is this the usual word order by which a Chinese understands sentences?

2) Whether the genitive case is implied, to which you have quite satisfactorily answered, also, to the part in which I asked whether or not, when there are no case markers around one should infer ALWAYS the genitive one: this latter is not a general rule, as I understood, and which case is implied must be determined by the context.


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## SuperXW

bankei yotaku said:


> 1) (this one did not come through) whether in translating FROM Chinese the word order is generally reversed, from the bottom up, as it is in this sentence; since we read the occurrence of "矛盾", "contradiction", at the end of the phrase in the beginning of it in the english translation, and so it goes for the other elements so that "人民日益增长的美好生活需要" comes at the end. They switch sides. Is this the usual word order by which a Chinese understands sentences?


I used to analyze and simplify the general word orders in Chinese, but I can't find my posts.

Here are some helpful rules of thumb.
The common Chinese word orders are:
[whose][*what*]
[status/attributes][*the thing(people/object/event)*]
[reason/condition/background][*result/conclusion*]
...

As you can see,* "key words" are usually given at the end.* This is how we don't like speak out things "too directly". It seems we want you to know the full backstory and description before the point.

Chinese DOESN'T have structures like:
[*the thing*] which... ([status/attributes])
[*the thing*] that...
[*the thing*] when...
[*the thing*] whose...
[*reason/condition*] as a result of...
Sometimes translating such sentences give us headache.


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## hx1997

As SuperXW rightly pointed out, in Chinese we usually place the noun after the phrases/clauses that modify it, since we don't have a construction that parallels English relative clauses (which place the noun before the modifiers). So, in 我国社会的主要矛盾 for example, the "keyword" is 矛盾 (contradiction); what precedes it is the modifiers, 我国社会的 (of the society of our country) and 主要 (main).


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## bankei yotaku

Many thanks everybody for all your answers. They've been quite instructive, and I have much to ponder, beginning to have more precise understanding of the Chinese language. I'll be back for more issues for certain!


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