verb + 得 + verb action

[metlx]

I've come across this sentence yesterday and I'm puzzled about it: 

 

"这电影这么无聊，我看得睡着了。"

This movie is so boring that I fell asleep while watching it.

 

看得睡着了 

verb + 得 + adjective (stative verb?) is the usual grammar pattern to my understanding (I'm omitting the subject and object),

 

e.g.:

懂的很好；

唱得不错；

穿很时髦。

 

But in the former case (看得睡着了)  verb ＋得 is followed by another verb action. This pattern is new to me and I'm wondering whether it is correct.

I did a bit of searching and found no grammar reference to "verb + 得 + verb" pattern.

 

Can anyone help me understand this? 

The sentence is quite straightforward and thus easy to understand, but I'd like to make sure it's correct before I go on about using this pattern.

 

 

[edelweis]

At first I thought it was a potential complement but the 了 and an internet search for possible contexts convinced me otherwise.

 

Now I think it's a complement of degree with V+得+clause, as seen in paragraph A7 here:

http://comet.cls.yale.edu/mandarin/content/degree/grammar/Degree-2.htm

[metlx]

@edelweis

thanks man, I didn't know 得 encompasses such a wide spectre of grammar. Very useful link!

EDIT: it also answered my question, so thanks again

Edited November 21, 2015 at 08:11 PM by metlx

[Messidor]

这电影这么无聊，我看得睡着了。-得睡着了 is a state complement, which can be either a word or a phrase. You can also say 这么无聊的电影我看得(都)睡着了；我看这么无聊的电影都看(得)睡着了.

 

ps: 懂得很好 sounds weird. Native speakers usually say 懂了一些 / 懂了一半 / 理解得很好。Is 穿很时髦 a typo ?

[metlx]

@Messidor, thank you for your explanation. Insightful, as always.

Yeah, it was a typo, I don't know what I was thinking hehe

[alfonsoll]

It sounds  unnatural to me.
We usually say "我看到睡着了". "到" here means " to the extent of".

[lips]

As in many cases, 看到睡着了 and 看得睡着了 mean the same thing in this context, i.e. the movie was so meaningless that it made me fall asleep while watching it.  The 了 at the end means I *did* fall asleep.

 

However, if you want to emphasize the extent or progress, as in  "I watched it until I fell asleep, then I didn't watch it", then you  must use 看到:  我看到睡著了就没看.

 

Of course 看到 and 看得 have other meanings as well.

 

As alfonsoll says, in Cantonese you must say 看到 in this context.  看得 in this context is wrong.

 

BTW 得 in front of a verb means "need to" or "must":  得看.  The pronunciation also channges to dei (3).  However Cantonese does not have this construction.