Grammar of [仰せ]{おおせ}になる


I've been reading through the Old Testament in my Japanese Bible
([新共同訳](https://www.bible.com/ja/bible/1819/GEN.1.%E6%96%B0%E5%85%B1%E5%90%8C%E8%A8%B3)).
A phrase I've seen about a million times is

> [主]{しゅ}はモーセに **仰せになった** → The Lord commanded Moses

I know what 仰せ(る) means, but I'm trying to understand the structure of 仰せになる.
I can't find it in any dictionaries. It seems like it could have just as well
been 仰せられた・仰せ付けられた (keigo). Here's what I have been toying with:

  1. It doesn't appear to be the basic "become" meaning of ～になる

> The Lord became/became as/was as the command (un)to Moses

  2. I thought it was possibly the ～になる keigo. However, that form is お＋連用形の語幹＋になる, so it would need to be [お]{L}仰せになる.

2a. Unless there is some rule where you cannot have the honourific お directly
preceding another お sound (although I have never heard of such a rule).

  3. I also thought maybe it is just a set phrase, possibly an antiquated one. But if so, why can't I find it in any dictionaries?

* * *

What exactly am I seeing with this form?




I'm pretty certain this is basically `お + 連用形 + になる`. Actually we can find
many instances of お仰せになる on the net, although I don't know if it's a typo, a
misuse, or an uncommon but acceptable usage.

Then why is お normally dropped? As Angelos pointed out, we say お教えになる, お思いになる
and お納めになる, so just because a verb starts with お does not mean it refuses
another お.

However, as flowsnake suggested, there may be exceptions when the main verb
already has an honorific sense alone. So which (inherently) honorific verb has
the `(お +) 連用形 + になる` form, too?

  * おおす - おおせになる (usually refuses extra お)
  * おぼしめす - おぼしめしになる (refuses extra お)
  * おわす - おわしになる (rare; refuses extra お)
  * めしあがる - おめしあがりになる (requires お)
  * めす - おめしになる (requires お)

Unfortunately, these are the only pairs I could come up with, so it is
difficult to conclude something. Still, we may hypothesize "if the main verb
is inherently honorific **AND** starts with お at the same time, the お before
the 連用形 is dropped".

(Plus, おおおせになる is difficult to pronounce, of course!)




I'm pretty certain this is basically `お + 連用形 + になる`. Actually we can find
many instances of お仰せになる on the net, although I don't know if it's a typo, a
misuse, or an uncommon but acceptable usage.

Then why is お normally dropped? As Angelos pointed out, we say お教えになる, お思いになる
and お納めになる, so just because a verb starts with お does not mean it refuses
another お.

However, as flowsnake suggested, there may be exceptions when the main verb
already has an honorific sense alone. So which (inherently) honorific verb has
the `(お +) 連用形 + になる` form, too?

  * おおす - おおせになる (usually refuses extra お)
  * おぼしめす - おぼしめしになる (refuses extra お)
  * おわす - おわしになる (rare; refuses extra お)
  * めしあがる - おめしあがりになる (requires お)
  * めす - おめしになる (requires お)

Unfortunately, these are the only pairs I could come up with, so it is
difficult to conclude something. Still, we may hypothesize "if the main verb
is inherently honorific **AND** starts with お at the same time, the お before
the 連用形 is dropped".

(Plus, おおおせになる is difficult to pronounce, of course!)

