this weekend

[Grant Barrett]

The conflict seems more to be one of context, and in my opinion, the
confusion is more easily placed on the "next" users (of which I am not
one) than the "this" users.

In my usage, I use "this weekend" to apply to both the one just
finished and the one coming up. But the difference is indicated by
tense:

"This weekend we went to the pumpkin farm."
"This weekend we're gonna go to Jone's Beach."

"Next weekend" users who are referring to the very next oncoming
weekend seem to be treating the two-day weekend as a single entity, and
not as being so much a part of the current week, "this week." The "next
weekend" users who are referring to the weekend after the very next
occuring weekend, seem to be treating the week itself as the more
important temporal entity. Thus, for them, "next weekend" is not a part
of "this" week.