Unusual sentence construction with 得. Is this correct?

[anonymoose]

I just came across this sentence:

 

猴子经常都情绪高涨和开心，应该是吃得多香蕉的原因。

 

Is it correct?

[skylee]

Why is it unusual?

Would you find it more normal if it were - "应该是香蕉吃得多的原因"?

[tooironic]

There are 9,750 hits for the construction on Baidu. For some reason it jumps to 143,000 when you click on Page 2, even with quotation marks... weird.

[Demonic_Duck]

两只老虎，两只老虎，跑得快，跑得快……

 

跑得快, 吃得多, verb 得 adj. It's the same construction.

[anonymoose]

Why is it unusual?

Would you find it more normal if it were - "应该是香蕉吃得多的原因"?

 

Yes. Do you think the original sentence is normal? I can't recall ever seeing a 得 construction with the object after the complement.

[roddy]

"跑得快, 吃得多, verb 得 adj. It's the same construction."

I would say no, as 多香蕉 isn't an adjective. 

 

I find it odd too. 

 

Edit: I've now said it to myself so many times it sounds normal though. 

[Tiana]

I'm with skylee. It's a mutation of "香蕉吃得多" (also "吃香蕉吃得多")

[pancake]

So if I understood skylee and Tiana correctly, this is to be understood as a 可能补语 right?

[dwq]

I find it unusual in this way though:

A應該是B的原因 A should be the reason for B.

So the sentence is saying because the Monkeys are happy, they eat a lot of bananas?

I would think it's the other way round.

Or is it some kind of inversion construction of "原因應該是B"?

[Tiana]

So if I understood skylee and Tiana correctly, this is to be understood as a 可能补语 right?

 

No, here it's a complement of result, not potential.

 

So the sentence is saying because the Monkeys are happy, they eat a lot of bananas?

 

No, the sentence is saying the Monkeys are happy because they eat a lot of bananas.

 

"应该是吃得多香蕉的原因"= (the fact that) they eat a lot of bananas should be the reason/ the cause (for them to be happy)

[歐博思]

我懂了現在。

[陳德聰]

"應該是（因為）[吃得多香蕉]的原因"

 

I think it's coherent Chinese but I don't like it.

[Guest realmayo]

Out of interest, had the fact they eat lots of bananas already been mentioned before that sentence?

[skylee]

Actually, I think the sentence is not well written. I would write 是香蕉吃得多的緣故 or simply 是因為香蕉吃得多.

In Cantonese the structure 吃得多香蕉 is very common.

[anonymoose]

Thanks Skylee, I think you've cleared that up.

So my take is that the original sentence is incorrect in standard chinese (Mandarin). The author is probably Cantonese-speaking, and let that influence the chinese.