If today is Thursday, when is
“next Saturday”?
Here’s some illustrations that might help to clear this up.
Thoughts?
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If today is Thursday, when is “next Saturday”?
Here’s some illustrations that might help to clear this up.
Thoughts?
Tweet
I am 57 years old and it has ALWAYS been that Next means next, which would be the saturday or sunday or whatever following whatever day you are in. This is Monday, so to me the Saturday coming up is NEXT. and the one after that is Saturday after next. Next means Next….not the time after, but the next occurrence of whatever day you are looking forward to look at it this way….if next was the week after, then does that mean that next Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving is the one occurring in 2011 and not 2010? Next means next, Period.
bloody ever confusing…. I just
please explain it better. i agree with DA and rob.
I'm of the "This = of the current week, Next = of the next week" variety and I can honestly say in 38 years I've never heard otherwise.
I am a literalist. Therefore, "next" refers to the soonest possible occurrence.
Dictionary.com's first definition is "immediately following in time…"
The problem is that there are 3 schools of though:
1) This/Next = the soonest future match
2) This = of the current week, Next = of the next week
3) a blend of each (interchange one definition OR the other)
In the first school of thought, "This Tuesday" would be the 9th, as would "Next Tuesday". In the second, "This Tuesday" would be the 2nd, and "Next Tuesday" would be the 9th. In the third, you have a 90% chance of miscommunication (as per Murphy's law).
People generally fall into the 1st category UNTIL 1 of 2 things happens:
1) This/Next refers to "tomorrow", so "tomorrow" trumps either term, making the terms now come from the 2nd school of thought.
2) the day being referenced is a weekend day, and the "current week" has vague boundaries.
In Spanish they have resolved this issue by practically forcing you to reference both sides of the "next" argument. So instead of saying "the next house" you say, "from this house, to the next" or "from the following house, to the next one." But, as Shakespeare said, "Brevity is the soul of wit."
So, I think we should be to abolish the use of This/Next for volume indicated scalars. "Friday" would be the soonest Friday in the future. "friday [whispered]" would be last Friday. "Friday!" would be a week from the soonest future Friday. And, "FRIDAY!!!" would be 2 weeks from the soonest future Friday.
But, I also think we should incorporate Phonetic Punctuation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4qii8S3gw
LOL,
-Rob