Use of 掛ける vs する for 眼鏡 or サングラス


Which is more common in spoken Japanese? 眼鏡【めがね】を掛ける【かける】or 眼鏡をする? I've heard
both verbs used, which is why I'm curious. Would the answer be different if
it's サングラス instead?




>   * 眼鏡{めがね}を掛｛か｝ける or 眼鏡 {めがね}をする
>   * If I recall correctly, they've said サングラスをします, but not 眼鏡｛めがね｝をします.
>

I think it's a very interesting observation.

I myself wear glasses, and I certainly say "眼鏡｛めがね｝を掛｛か｝ける", but I don't say
"眼鏡｛めがね｝をする".  
I don't wear sunglasses, more over I don't even have ones. If I say, I would
say "サングラスをする".  
I thought about this difference, and I have set up two hypotheses. There is no
guarantee that they are correct.

(1) When I put on my eyeglasses, the expression "掛ける" doesn't have a nuance to
make them function to correct the vision by placing them in front of my eyes,
but has a nuance to hang "テンプル/ウデ/ツル _hanging temples_ " on the ears, or a
nuance to hang "パッド/鼻当｛はなあ｝て _nose pads_ " on the the nose.

(2) I often ski, so when I go downhill by skiing I always wear "ゴーグル _goggles_
".  
As you know, goggles protect eyes from ultraviolet rays like sunglasses. When
thinking about goggles, I notice that I say "ゴーグルを付{つ}ける" or "ゴーグルをする" instead
of "ゴーグルを掛{か}ける". Considering the difference in verbs to use, "ゴーグルを付ける" means
the operation to put on them, and "ゴーグルをする" seems to pay attention to the
function to protect eyes from ultraviolet rays. In the case of sunglasses, the
reason that I don't use "サングラスを掛ける" but use "サングラスをする" is probably that I
would focuse on proteting the eyes rather than the putting on action.

Despite the above explanation, in fact, both verbs with "掛ける" or "する" is
safely used for glasses or sunglasses.

The frequency of use on the Internet is as follows.

  * 眼鏡をかける 327,000 
  * 眼鏡をする 1,006,000 
  * めがねをかける 48,700
  * めがねをする 159,000
  * メガネをかける 1,210,000
  * メガネをする 1,880,000

  * サングラスをかける 193,000

  * サングラスをする 604,000




According to BCCWJ, which is a corpus based on written Japanese, 眼鏡をかける is way
(> 10 times) more common than 眼鏡をする. In spoken Japanese, basic words like する
tend to be used more often than in written Japanese, so the difference may be
relatively smaller.

