How many times should 「お」 and 「ご」 be used in a sentence?


In [this Chiebukuro
question](http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1015165320)
about whether it should be **ご** 心配無用 or 心配 **ご** 無用, one answerer says the
following:

> 「ご」とか「お」で丁寧とか尊敬とかを表す場合、  
>  一番最後のものにだけつけておけば  
>  全体にかかると言われているようです。  
>  たとえば  
>  「住所氏名年齢職業を”お”書きのうえ」とかです。  
>  ご住所 おなまえ お歳 ご職業 などとは言わないそうです。

Quick translation:

> When you add 「ご」 or 「お」 to show politeness/respect, if you just stick it on
> the last thing it will work on the whole sentence.  
>  For example we say: 「住所氏名年齢職業を **お** 書きのうえ」 rather than **ご** 住所 **お** 名前
> **お** 歳 **ご** 職業...

This got me thinking about the topic of how many times to use 「お」 and 「ご」 in a
sentence. For example, I've always wondered why it's not **ご** 設定 in the
following common train announcement:

> 優先席付近では携帯電話の電源をお切り下さい。それ以外の場所では、マナーモードに **設定** の上、通話はお控え下さい。

Similarly, on the buses where I live, it's:

> [...]マナーモードに **設定** の上、通話はご遠慮下さい。

But, on the other hand, I've seen plenty of sentences like this before:

> 電源を **お** 切りいただくか、マナーモードに **ご** 設定の上、 **ご** 使用を **お**
> 控えください。[(source)](http://www.clearrave.co.jp/pasta/notice.html)

So I want to ask:  
・Are there any prescriptive rules (from 文化庁 for example) that govern how many
times to use 「お」「ご」 in a sentence?  
・And how do people actually decide how many times to use 「お」「ご」 in a sentence?




As you probably have already guessed, there is no hard rule about how many
times you can use お and ご prefixes in a sentence. We often avoid using too
many honorifics, and it is true that there is a general tendency to use
honorifics in the final verbs. However, we sometimes use honorifics also in
other places.

This is different from 二重敬語. For example, consider お読みになられる. Because お読みになる is
a respectful form of 読む, and なられる is a respectful form of なる, お読みになられる is
something like the respectful form of the respectful form of 読む. Expressions
like this are called 二重敬語, and they are usually discouraged in the modern
Japanese except for certain common phrases. See pp. 30–31 of
[敬語の指針](http://www.bunka.go.jp/bunkashingikai/soukai/pdf/keigo_tousin.pdf) by
the Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) for more about 二重敬語 and what may look
like 二重敬語 but actually are not.




As you probably have already guessed, there is no hard rule about how many
times you can use お and ご prefixes in a sentence. We often avoid using too
many honorifics, and it is true that there is a general tendency to use
honorifics in the final verbs. However, we sometimes use honorifics also in
other places.

This is different from 二重敬語. For example, consider お読みになられる. Because お読みになる is
a respectful form of 読む, and なられる is a respectful form of なる, お読みになられる is
something like the respectful form of the respectful form of 読む. Expressions
like this are called 二重敬語, and they are usually discouraged in the modern
Japanese except for certain common phrases. See pp. 30–31 of
[敬語の指針](http://www.bunka.go.jp/bunkashingikai/soukai/pdf/keigo_tousin.pdf) by
the Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁) for more about 二重敬語 and what may look
like 二重敬語 but actually are not.

