Next Sunday

In My Humble Opinion
1

Where I work, it is necessary for on call shifts outside of normal business hours. This has led to an interesting and fierce debate amongst my collegues, which remains unresolved after several weeks. When, exactly, is next Sunday? There are three schools of thought:

The Sunday Immediately following today
This camp, believe that the request “will you cover my oncall next Sunday” means the Sunday at the end of this week. That is, if the request came on Saturday, it would mean tomorrow. Similarly, if the request was made on Monday, it would be the Sunday 6 days hence.

They cite as evidence the usage of the term “next” when talking about, phone calls, or drinks - “I’ll take the next call” or “I’ll buy the next round”.

The Sunday after next
This school of thought suggest that the request “will you cover my oncall next Sunday” means the Sunday at the end of next week. That is, Sunday week.

They cite as evidence the term “This Sunday”, which clearly means the Sunday immediately following today. If the immediately following Sunday is “this Sunday” (they claim), “next Sunday” must be the one after.

It all depends on what today is
This group is somewhat of a minority, and claim that next Sunday all depends on what today is. On Monday, next Sunday is clearly is the Sunday 6 days hence. On Saturday, next Sunday is obviously not tomorrow, rather Sunday week - Sunday in 8 days time. What next Sunday is on Wednesday or Thursday, is not entirely clear - although convention suggests that the dividing line between next Sunday being the Sunday immediately following and the Sunday after is midnight Wednesday.

This group don’t really cite much evidence, but do say “it makes proper sense”.

So, can you help with our dilemma? What is next Sunday? Much rides on this - not least my plans for, erm… next Sunday.

2

I’ve always determined ‘next Sunday’ to be, the Sunday after the one this week.
So, if I said “next Sunday” now, I’d be referring to the Sunday of 11/20. To refer to the Sunday of 11/13 I would say “this Sunday”.

3

I concur. Otherwise it is “on Sunday.”

4

Why not just be absolutely clear and say, “Will you cover my oncall for Sunday, 11/13?” It’s a good idea for business communications anyway.

5

Well, yes, we do use dates. But debate still rages. If I said, “can you please cover my oncall shift Sunday 13 Nov”, there will always be someone who pipes up “This Sunday?” and others who will quickly disagree, and well, the debate starts again.

Each side lobbies for the support of the fence sitters in the team, trying to establish a majority for their point of view.

I need facts - reasons - who’s right and why? Stop the insanity!

6

Well, that’s just dumb. Why debate semantics when the absolute date has been established? What’s the diff whether you call it “this” or “next” Sunday, when we already know what exact day it is??

There is no “right” or “wrong.” It’s like the stupid toilet paper argument. Who cares, as long as you have something to wipe your ass with?

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I’m reminded of the time when I was a kid and I mentioned at the dinner table that some friends were going to be spending the week with their cousins, who happened to live in the same school district, so they would all get to go to school together. I thought it was neat, but my dad grilled me to the point of tears on whether that was “normal.” WTF? (His point, I think, was that it wasn’t and they shouldn’t do it – having sleepover guests all week while going to school, or something.) Who the fuck cares? And how the hell was it any of his business anyway?

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