this weekend

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:55 PM -0400 8/22/02, Dennis R. Preston wrote:
>>You mean you can't say "I was in California this weekend"?
>
>dInId
>

I definitely can, with the tense again disambiguating, and what's more...

>>To me, "this weekend" means the one now in progress, or, if today is a
>>weekday, the one that is going to come soonest; never the one just past.
>>I.e., "this weekend" is never more than five days away, and the
>>direction is always forward. I've taken to saying "this coming weekend"
>>or, for the following one, getting lengthy as in "the weekend after this
>>coming weekend"; similarly "this past weekend".
>>
>>I hope nobody finds "this coming/past weekend" ambiguous!
>>
>>-- Mark A. Mandel

I'm afraid there's still some potential there for misunderstanding.
Friday noon, say, "this coming weekend" could mean tomorrow and
Sunday or a week from.

larry