What is this 给 doing in this sentence?

Question

一个农民工请了一个他不认识的女人代收他女儿要寄给他的月饼包裹。

女人说：“这个忙好帮，您不怕我把收到的月饼给吃了？”
The woman said, "That's easy, but aren't you afraid that I might eat the cakes?"

她在这句话用的‘给’是什么意思？ 如果写“您不怕我把收到的月饼吃了”有区别吗？

Answer 1

給 6

用於動詞前，表示加強「被動」或「處置」等語氣。

在這裡是「加強處置的語氣」。 沒有「給」，也可以，但是語氣較弱。

Used before a verb, to enhance the "passive" or "to deal with" and other tones.

It is the tone of "to deal with" here (in your example). It is OK without 給, but the tone is weaker.

Answer 2

The difference between

"您不怕我把收到的月饼给吃了？”

“您不怕我把收到的月饼吃了”

把 is a 'depositive marker' that marks the noun(月饼) after it as an object to be deposited of,

月饼吃了= the moon cake ate (月饼 is in the subject position)

把月饼吃了= ate the moon cake (把 marks 月饼 as the object, to be deposited of- deposit by eating it)

On the other hand, 给 is a 'passive voice marker' that mark the noun (月饼) as an object

月饼吃了= the moon cake ate (月饼 is in the subject position)

月饼给(subject omitted)吃了 = the moon cake was eaten (subject omitted) (给 marks 月饼 as the object)

Since the 'depositive marker' 把 already marked the noun after it as the object, you do not need to add 'passive voice marker' 给 after it.

Adding 给 here just for emphasis, make the tone of the speech stronger. Just like the other answer suggested.

Answer 3

There's a discussion about this over here: 把...给...Construction on chinese-forums; this was posted from cri.cn

主＋“把”＋宾＋给＋动

There's a simple construct here: who/what + 把 + object + 给 + verb

here's some examples:

他把我的英镑给丢了。

大风把柱子给刮倒了。

他一句话就把大家给逗乐了。

你这一问还真把我给问住了。

So in your example sentence - we see this construct quite clearly:

【我】 +【把】+【收到的月饼】+【给】【吃】

Answer 4

对于一个在中国生活了20年的人来说，我觉得这两句话区别不大，都是可以的。但是加上“给”听起来更幽默，有调侃的味道，感觉北方人更喜欢这么说。在开玩笑的语境下，我们一般也会加上“给”。

I am not studying Chinese, so my answer is not professional. The grammar of Chinese is very loose and Chinese people are hospitable. If you are learning Chinese for communication, forget these details.