“The reason（is because……”是病句吗）

昨天同事问我一个问题：到底应该说the reason is that还是the reason is because？

比如有的英语老师会很强硬地认为“The reason for the new plan is becausethe situation has changed.”这句话是病句。应该改为：The reason for the new plan isthatthe situation has changed.

有的语法专家也持同样的观点，认为the reason is because这种表达是错误的，原因有二：

1. Because在这里多余了，因为because本来意思就是“for the reason that”，所以the reason is because相当于the reason is for the reason that，意思重复。2.is是系动词，后面不能跟状语从句，because引导的是原因状语从句，所以不能出现在is后面。

但事实上，很多英语作者都会使用“the reason is because”这种表达。

加州大学圣地亚哥分校的语言学学者Gabe Doyle认为，两种说法都可以。“the reason is because”也是标准英语表达，400多年来都有人这么用。而且因为reason和because意思上有微弱（mild）的重复就归为“错误”用法有些牵强。

The reason is because is a standard English phrase, one coming from the pen of good writers (Bacon,Frost,Wodehouse) for 400 years. It"s grammatically fine, and its supposed redundancy is at worst mild. You"re welcome to use the reason is that instead, as both are standard, but there"s no good reason to oppose the reason is because.

stackexchange.com是一个英语学习的交流平台，有人在这个网站上也提出了这个疑问。

排名靠前的两个回答立场相反，我认为最高票的回答很好地解释了这个问题。

这两个句子中：

The reason is because it rained yesterday.The reason is that it rained yesterday.

第二个句子读起来似乎好一些，因为the reason is because稍微有些重复。

但比较这两个句子：

The only good reason to go to graduate school in English literature is because you love it.The only good reason to go to graduate school in English literature is that you love it.

相比之下用because更优，因为在reason和because之间有很大的间隙，所以because能更好地点出reason这个主语。

韦氏词典（Merriam-Webster Dictionary）在一篇名为“The Reason Is Because: Redundant But Acceptable”的文章中明确表态：

没必要因为“重复”而将其归为“异类”。因为古往今来这么写的人不乏一些赫赫有名的英语大家——Francis Bacon，Jonathan Swift，John Adams等等。如果你觉得the reason is because别扭，那就不要写，但不用诟病。

参考链接：

https://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/the-reason-is-because/

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/34396/is-it-correct-to-say-the-reason-is-because

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/usage-of-reason-is-because-redundant