And “I went there this Sunday,” said on a Monday, sounds fine to me. Pt: Usage varies in American English.
OK, let’s say it’s Tuesday, the 3rd. Would anyone refer to Wed the 4ht as “next Wednesday”? How about Thursday, the 5th? Next Thursday?
Again, this is only my sense, but those sound so very wrong to me.
No, hardly anyone would. That is a big reason this question is so fraught with ambiguity even if most people agree on clear cases like these. There is a clear but unconscious time math when interpreting such speech and it isn’t a simple greater than or lesser than comparison.
If today is Tuesday, Wednesday is simply ‘tomorrow’ and ‘next Wednesday’ is 8 days from now. The same thing applies to Thursday of this week. That is why I said that that a three to four day difference seems to be the tipping point for most people but the exact point differs among individuals. Once you get past about three days, many if not most people will assume that you are talking about the earliest day by that name without other cues.
It is a really interesting cognitive problem. Most people understand it intuitively fairly well but it is really hard to lay out strict rules for it.
I think weekdays differ from Saturday and Sunday here. “This [M/T/W/T/F]” means the instance of that day within this current week. “This Monday” said on a Wednesday refers to two days ago. “This Friday” said on a Wednesday refers to two days hence. “Last M/T/W/T/F” refers to the instance of that day in the previous week even if you’re already past that day in the current week, and “Next M/T/W/T/F” refers to the instance of that day in the next week even if you haven’t gotten to that day in the current week. But weekends don’t follow these rules strictly, and things get muddy.
I can’t wrap my head around “This X-day” referring to a day in the past. “This” always means in the future, for me.
The tricky one, for me, would be if it’s Tuesday the 3rd, then what is Monday, the 9th? “This Monday” doesn’t sound quite right, but neither does “next Monday”. I think I would generally say “this coming Monday”.
If someone said to me today, March 3rd, 2015 “What did you do this Sunday?” I would immediately know they were asking about my plans from 2 days ago, March 1st. If they said “Do you have any plans for this Sunday?” I’d tell them about my plans for Sunday, March 8th. If someone said to me, “What are you doing next Sunday?” I’d say, “do you mean this weekend or the one after?” just to clarify.
So, “this Sunday” can mean something in the past, or in the future, depending on context.
“This Sunday” means the Sunday within the week we are now in. “Next Sunday” means the Sunday of the next week, i.e. over 7 days from now. Doesn’t really seem that complicated.
This only happens in months where Friday the 13th falls on a Thursday.
Indeed, and in your and others’ examples the context is obvious from the use of the past or future tenses or other indications about when the event occurs. If it is about a future day, it always means the next Sunday. It’s hard to come up with uses of “this” where it is not clear whether it refers to the past or future. Perhaps the following slightly contrived exchange:
“Wow, look at that, the hottest day of the year so far.”
“When?”
“This Sunday.”
If that exchange occurred between about Monday and Wednesday, it would not be clear to me whether the person was talking about a forecast, or a high temperature that had been recorded. I think I take “this” to generally mean “the nearest Sunday, whether in the past or future.”
Anyway, “this” does not exhibit the same problem as “next”, which is always about a future day, the question being how far in the future.
“Next Sunday” means the 15th.
If I wanted to do something with you on Sunday (which I don’t) I would ask what you are doing on Sunday. I wouldn’t say “Next Sunday” because we both know it can’t be last Sunday (I can’t make plans for the past) so it must be the 8th.
If I were to say “This Sunday” it would be assumed it is the 8th. That is this week’s Sunday.
The correct answer is “the 8th.”
Why? You are adding extraneous information. Nobody says “See you Sunday” meaning 42 Sunday’s from now. So “Sunday” must mean the 8th. Therefore NEXT Sunday means the 15th. Otherwise you’d just say Sunday.
“Sunday” and “next Sunday” both mean “the 8th” regardless of any extraneous information.
Out of linguistic curiosity, at what point, if any, does “next Sunday” turn into the 15th? If I’m asking this question on Saturday the 7th, “next Sunday” would be the 15th, right? If yes, then at what point is the turnover? If not, then I guess there’s no question (although it would be very confusing to me.)
(And this is why I generally say “not this, but the following Sunday” to refer to the 15th, even though “next Sunday” would be normal for my dialect to refer to the 15th. To me, the construction means, as mentioned above, this [week] Sunday vs next [week] Sunday. This obviously varies by dialect.)
If they’re saying it on Saturday, they should just say “tomorrow” to avoid confusion. And if they’re saying it on Saturday, I’ll ask do they mean tomorrow or the 15th.
I guess if I can’t win this argument I’ll just have to say See You Next Tuesday.
I would understand it, too, but it would still not sound right. If someone said “What are you going to ate for dinner next Sunday”, I would understand that, too, but it would sound wrong.
That makes perfect, logical sense. And the only problem is that much of language does not make perfect, logical sense.
See the suggestion here: http://oxtweekend.com/
The solution is that this weekend is the 8th (using the examples above) and the 15 would become oxt Sunday.
“next” Sunday is the next day that is a Sunday. The 8th.
The existence of redundancy in English should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the language, so the fact that there exist other ways to point to the 8th has exactly nothing to do with the question of what the phrase “next Sunday” means.
It changes on the 8th, when “next Sunday” will refer to the 15th.
No, you’re wrong. That is the Sunday contained within this week. It isn’t THIS Sunday, the 15 is NEXT Sunday.
It is incorrect to say the 8 is NEXT Sunday because it is the Sunday of the current week.