Your two examples shows how your mother is wrong in the usage of next. Next is Next. It’s only unclear when people want to use Next instead of saying a week from this. Next and this are the same.
When the announcer at the end of Batman says “Will Batman escape the Jokers fiendish trap? See what happens next episode. Same Bat-time, Same Bat Channel” Did you mom think that the conclusion would be not the very next episode to air but the one after that? That is flawed thinking.
How on earth does ‘next Saturday’ mean a week from next Saturday? I know people get confused, but I don’t know why.
Because, for whatever reason, a lot of people–me included–feel like “this” and “next” should be two different Saturdays. Don’t ask me why, it’s just how I’ve usually heard the phrase used, and I don’t let logic dictate language, but rather let usage dictate language. In the first example, “this” and “next” don’t mean the same thing. “This episode” would be the current episode, the one that just finished. The “next” episode would the one following. I can’t explain why “next Saturday” feels to me that it should be a week from “this Saturday,” other than “this” and “next” usually refer to two different things (like “take this bus to Albuquerque” vs “take the next bus to Albuquerque” to me mean two different buses) so my brain and the brain of many native English speakers seems to interpret it that way.
I would never ever ever refer to two days from now as “next Sunday.” If someone asked me right now “What are you doing next Sunday?” I would assume they didn’t mean the Sunday two days from now, otherwise they would have used the construction “what are you doing Sunday?” or “what are you doing this Sunday?” At least that’s how it works in my dialect. Like I said, when I use “next,” I now say “not this, but next Sunday” or “a Sunday a week from this Sunday” or something like that, because I realize there is some ambiguity but, typically, if someone around here asked me about “next Sunday” today, I would bet that 90+% of the time they are referring to the Sunday nine days from today.
It doesn’t. To some, it means “a week from this Saturday”.
The assumption is “this Saturday” is not “next Saturday”. The logical conclusion is that “next Saturday” is the one after “this Saturday”.
People can argue all day what’s right and what’s wrong, but anyone who uses “next Saturday” and expects to be understood is making a mistake, unless they’ve established a convention with the recipient.
If it was Friday and I said “next Saturday”, would you assume I meant tomorrow? Probably not.
If I said it Thursday, what would you interpret it to mean?
Because it seems wrong to say that “this Saturday” and “next Saturday” mean the same thing.
Say you are standing at a bus stop and two buses are approaching. One is almost at the stop, the other is a block away. You ask the person next to you “Which bus do you take to get downtown?” If the person answered “you take this bus” which bus do you think they mean? What if they answer “you take the next bus”? Are both answers referring to the same bus?
ETA: Just like what Learjeff said.
Thinking about it some more, there also may be a tendency to want to groups all near days into a week, so “this Saturday” means something more like “this week Saturday” and “next Saturday” means “next week Saturday.” For example, let’s pretend it’s Wednesday. “What are you doing next Monday” to me has a lot of ambiguity. In that case, my brain is lopping “Monday” into “next week,” so “this Monday” and “next Monday” can be equivalent, and I would always ask for clarification. But if you ask, “what are you doing next Saturday?” to me that’s definitely not the upcoming Saturday, but the one after that.
I don’t know if that’s what goes on in English speakers brains, but that feels about right to me. I think of “this Saturday” as the Saturday that belongs to this week and “next Saturday” as the Saturday that belongs to next week. When you ask me on Wednesday about “next Monday,” you cross week boundaries, and it becomes much more confusing to me. But maybe that’s just me.
If it’s Thursday, and something’s happening on the following Saturday, I just say it’s happening on Saturday. So in my mind, “next” is something unambiguous, because there is no modifier if it’s the upcoming Saturday.
If you were driving along and I said “OMG I’m gonna hurl; take the next exit…” would you take the next one you got to, or the one after that?
If a casher opens up a new lane and says “I’ll take the next customer here,” should the next person after the one being served go to her lane, or the one after him?
Next means next, the next one in line, and yes, it’s circular. Life is like that.
Nobody’s gonna argue usage with you on that. But what about the bus example?
Context. If there is an emergency in progress that requires leaving the freeway, everyone understands you mean “as soon as possible.”
What if right at the exit ramp there is a sign that says “Trucks use next exit”? Does that mean trucks should get off here or wait?
I think the closer you get to an exit, the more ambiguous it becomes. If you are miles away from an exit, then “next exit” seems like it means the first exit you come to. If you are almost at the exit, when you see “next exit” you wonder if the sign is trying to tell you not to take this exit. Your mind wonders why the sign wouldn’t refer to the imminent exit as “this exit.”
I like to be flexible with language, more so than most people consider acceptable, but in this case I go literal. ‘Next’ is one of those very basic words that’s not open to interpretation. It means ‘next’. From this time forward when you first encounter an item, it is the ‘next’ item.
Except, that as I say, I think there is a tendency to lop it in with “this week.” So “this Saturday” would be the Saturday belonging to this week, and “next Saturday” would belong to next week. I think that’s what’s going on, and it seems perfectly natural and normal to me, but that’s because that’s how I’ve usually encountered the phrase to be used.
That’s fine. And if everyone felt the same as you do (or you could convince them to fell the same as you do), there would be no problem. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t and there is no easy way to identify them. In fact, a lot of people will take inconsistent stands on the issue, depending on context. And if there is no agreement amongst the parties involved, then the phrase is ambiguous and you must use it cautiously, unless you don’t care how it is understood (“if they show up on the wrong Saturday, it’s their loss, not mine”).
I understand what you’re saying. But my definition is the right definition, and the one that everyone should be using. Now who do I talk to about getting those people set straight?
I hear there is a group with considerable experience setting people straight that is looking for new work.
As I write this, next Saturday will be June 29th. Tomorrow, or this Saturday, will be June 22nd.
Why? Because we’re speaking about the Saturday that belongs to this week, or the Saturday that belongs to next week.
Now let’s get into whether Sunday, June 23rd is ‘this Sunday’ or ‘next Sunday’. (As far as I’m concerned, June 23rd is next Sunday, as it is the first day of next week.)
Sadly, language is based on usage, not logic.
That will be Saturday next week, not next Saturday. Being Canadian is no excuse for being confusing. It’s okay as an excuse for being confused though.
For me, Sunday still belongs to this week, being part of the weekend.
I still think that “this Saturday” is redundant. Just say “Saturday” for the Saturday occurring on the same week. That’ll reserve “next Saturday” to mean “next week Saturday,” and it’ll be unambiguous. Problem solved! Now all I have to do is convince every single English speaker on the planet that this is a good idea!
I use therm “Next” for the next one coming.
Like, “Next Weekend”, only in terms if this is the weekend previous to the next one at the time.
I would just say, “On/Over the weekend” if it’s during the week.
Unless it’s Friday, then I’ll say Tomorrow, Saturday or Sunday, if both days have different specific activities.
Next doesn’t imply anything other than specifically, “NEXT”. Not “After Next”.
No one should say, “Next Saturday” during the week unless they want to be ambiguous on purpose. :dubious:
It should be said as “A week from Saturday” to imply the Saturday after next.
But, on the other hand if I make plans on Friday for the weekend, but then I find that this weekend I was too busy for it, I would probably say, “Let’s do it Next Weekend”, even if the first weekend hasn’t arrived yet. 