24 of 30 - Next Weekend

[aggienaut]

   Let's talk about next weekend. What wild plans do you have for next weekend?

   At work on Monday my coworker Amy brought up that the Orange County Beekeeper's Association barbeque. After five minutes of discussion I realized that by "this weekend" she meant the weekend 12 days hence. The weekend I would describe as "the weekend after next."

   Notwithstanding my confusion, I get the impression it is extremely common, around here anyway, to mean the second weekend from now as "next weekend." I've run into this a number of times ... and it makes no sense to me.

   The argument I suppose is that the upcoming weekend is "this weekend," and the following one would then be next. Still though. The definition of "next is "(1) immediately following in time" or "(2) nearest or adjacent in place or position." That sounds to me like it clearly means this upcoming weekend.

   I recalled they had a better way of differentiating the weekends in Ireland, but offhand couldn't recall exactly what it had been, so I emailed my cousin Tim back in the old country. His response was kind of silly so I'm going to repost it:

Nothing too strange this side of the pond. Toppin away as they say. Tryin to get me own bidness goin making music for media/composing that sort of malarky. Am crap at the networking, aint got no work yet, its a damndably small market in Ireland so thank god for business enterprise scheme else id be back to stealing lunch money from the neighbours kids and hunting wild gruffolo. What a random topic to pick up on a four year old reply, I like it. As far as I know next weekend means next weekend, but when people say, 'ill see you saturday week' its means the saturday of the following week.
It sounds like your coworker is a few cards short of a full deck, the wheel is turning but the hamster is dead, and what not.

Whats the craic in orange county? You all finished college? Hows the family? I saw the pics of eric is his PohLeece car and your home distillery, they make quite a contrast, opposite sides of the law, its got the makings of a new HBO show.

Hope all else is well, my regards to mah, pah and two bros

Chin chin old bean

   So yeah, in Ireland the upcoming weekend is "next weekend" and any day of the following week is "Monday week," "Tuesday week," ... "Saturday week."


This Weekend
   On a related note, there's THIS weekend. Is it the one that just occurred or the one that is about to occur? Clearly during, and on Friday, "this weekend" is the one that's occurring presently. Otherwise I think it's a matter of context. Either next weekend can (also) be "this weekend," or if you ask "what did you do this weekend" you're clearly talking about the one immediately past.

   So it depends on if you're talking in past tense. But apparently that can even be unclear. Because I speak with an Irish inflection, sometimes people mistake questions for statements and vice versa. So on a number of occasions I've asked "have a nice weekend?" and gotten the response of "thanks!" d:
   This of course makes me want to hunt them like wild gruffolo.

Comments

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Make life easy -- say, I have plans for the weekend of July fourth, beit they consider that one "next weekend" or the weekend after, they know when you intend to go out and party!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I usually try to specify "this upcoming weekend" or if it's the one after I'll usually use the date.

[malruniel11.livejournal.com]

For me, "this weekend" is either the one currently going on, or (if it's during the week) the one at the end of that week. "Next weekend" is the weekend following "this weekend." And if it's during the week, "last weekend" was the one we just finished.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah that seems to be the system here. It's interesting to cross reference people's responses here to where they're from.

[frozendoll.livejournal.com]

I think of this weekend as...this coming weekend, so for me it would be Saturday the 27th.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

But when someone says "next weekend," what does that mean to you?

[frozendoll.livejournal.com]

Next weekend as in the weekend after this one coming, so if we're looking at dates, it'd be July 4th.

[furzicle.livejournal.com]

Native speakers of Norwegian get confused about the term "tonight." I have often heard things along the lines of, "I slept well tonight."

Then of course I know a Swede who says things like, "I wore my jello dress."

As for Ireland, I once asked Simon or Tim (maybe both?) if they would like to go to Disneyland. When the response was, I don't mind," I figured it wasn't a high priority. It turns out I was wrong.

And while I'm on the subject, it brings to mind the German girl who told me repeatedly that she "hates the beach."

Then we eventually went to the beach anyway. She had a blast. I reminded her of her statement that she hated the beach. Her reply?

"I hate the beach. But I LOVE the sea."

Go figure.

Moral of story: Never assume that what someone said is what you think they meant. Describe the subject in question using several sentences. Then go to the beach anyway.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

True true. Who was this swede?

[guabili.livejournal.com]

"This weekend" means the immediately approaching one. "This past weekend" means the most recent weekend that already existed.

--

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

but when is next weekend?

[heethen-crone.livejournal.com]

"This next weekend" means the one coming up ie June 27-28. Last weekend is June 20-21. I also use the phrase "Tuesday next" to mean the Tuesday after this coming Tuesday. Are we confuzzled yet? Part of the problem is that people mean different things by the same words.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see furzicle's comment on the same thing. I think it's interesting that even looking at comments here people seem evenly split between "next weekend is the one in a few days" and "next weekend is the one in 7+ days."

[theafaye.livejournal.com]

Next weekend is the one coming. Saturday week would be weekend after next. English/Irish, same diff. Didn't even realise it could be any different.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah we don't have the "___day week" phrase in the United States at all. Or at least certainly not over here on the West Coast.

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

Not in the southwest nor in the midwest either. "Next weekend" is the next one approaching; "last weekend" was the most recently past one. The 4th of July is the "weekend after next" to me.
THAT is why I like using dates.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I usually use the date for any day after the next weekend (ie upcoming weekend). Everything that far in the future is off my horizon anyway (:

[klig.livejournal.com]

For me, "this weekend" is the next one on the calendar that hasn't started yet. If it is the weekend when you're speaking, it refers to the following one.

Conversely, "Friday week" to me means not this Friday, but the following one. That is, Friday plus a week.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah I like the "___ week" naming convention. We don't have it here in the States (though it's self explanatory enough that if I started using it I think people would know what I was talking about, maybe I should)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha that's what _I_ was thinking! (: