this weekend

[Jewls2u]

The conversation about meeting next weekend usually goes something like
this:

"So we'll see you next weekend."
"Uh...wait, do you mean this next weekend or the next weekend after this
one?"
"The next weekend. The 7th, we'll see you on the 7th."
"I'd better write that down."

Julienne

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
Of Steve Kl.
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 9:13 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: this weekend


On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Michael Israel wrote:

> My cousin has asked me for help with a problem that she suspects
> is due to regional variation. The question concerns the denotation of
"this" and "next"
> in the phrases "this/next weekend". She writes:
>
> > My boss and I were having an argument over the meaning of "this/next
    weekend."
> > It was the middle of the week, and I referred to "next weekend"
    meaning the one in couple days.
> > He understood me to mean the one over a week away and then insisted
    that I mispoke.
> > I said that there are regional understandings of this/next weekend and
> > that we just used the phrases differently.  He thought I was crazy.

> Is anyone on the list familiar with this sort of variation? Based on my
own experience,
> I would assume that it is the boss who has the strange intuitions.

My intuition is with the boss. On Wednesday, "next weekend" for me is 10
days away. "This weekend" is the one 3 days away.

Michigan 1966-1986; Chicago 1986-1996; Boston since.

-- Steve Kl.