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- Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!spider!raft.spider.co.uk!claudiak
- From: claudiak@spider.co.uk (Claudia Kale)
- Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
- Subject: Re: "This" weekend vs. "Next" weekend
- Message-ID: <1992Jul28.080441.10928@spider.co.uk>
- Date: 28 Jul 92 08:04:41 GMT
- References: <1992Jul25.064116.13892@news.columbia.edu> <oeQibGu00awAQ6jEwK@andrew.cmu.edu> <1992Jul27.141850.1@wombat.newcastle.edu.au>
- Organization: Spider Systems Limited, Edinburgh, UK.
- Lines: 25
-
- In article <1992Jul27.141850.1@wombat.newcastle.edu.au> eepjm@wombat.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
- >In article <oeQibGu00awAQ6jEwK@andrew.cmu.edu>, "Benjamin D. Lukoff" <bl2m+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
- >> I always thought everyone understood the distinction between 'this'
- >> weekend, meaning this upcoming weekend, and 'next' weekend, meaning the
- >> one after that. Is that really used more often by non-American speakers?
- >
- >To this non-American, "this weekend" means the coming weekend, and
- >"next weekend" is ambiguous. "Last weekend" is also ambiguous, but
- >only because today is a Monday. Thinking about this, I've just
- >realised that to me "this Saturday" is ambiguous when I'm speaking
- >on a Monday, but that "this weekend" almost always refers to the future.
- >(Exception: "What did you do this weekend?")
- >
- >Usually I try to avoid the ambiguity by using phrases like:
- > this coming Saturday (the very next Saturday to arrive)
- > Saturday week (about a week and a half from now)
- >Is the construct "Saturday week" used outside Australia?
- >--
- >Peter Moylan eepjm@wombat.newcastle.edu.au
-
- Yes, "[Some]day week" is used outside Australia; it's quite common
- here.
-
- Cheers,
- Claudia (.sigless)
-
