Yet another grammar question...
 

hello fellow TFPers...I was hoping you could help me answer a grammatical question:

I've been debating with my friends about using the word "next" to describe a day of the week. For instance, we often use "next saturday" to mean the saturday of the week after the one which we are currently in. But this is really the only situation I can think of where we do this. Is this a misuse of the english language?

When I say "next time I see you", I mean the very next time, not the time after that. So when I say "next Saturday", should it not indicate the very next saturday, regardless of whether it's in the current week or the week after?

Anyone? Thanks!!

When I say 'next saturday', I mean the next one after the one approaching. If I mean this current week, I just say saturday.

hmm, yes I know, that's what most people would do, including myself - but is it proper grammar or did we just start doing it wrong?

This is not a grammar question rather it's a usage question... I agree with YoungNastyMan's take on things.

I'm not sure I agree...I know what people have come to mean by using "next saturday", what I'm wondering is which is actually the grammatically correct usage of the word next in a sentence like that.

I wish I could think of another example to compare it to...

Well if you want to get all grammatically technical, we'll first look into the definition of the word 'next'.

Next -

1) Nearest in space or position; adjacent: the next room.
2) Immediately following, as in time, order, or sequence: next week; the next item on the list.

So going by that, next means the closest one to that space or point in time, being the approaching saturday, and not the following one.

I still say that if I am refering to the Saturday that is approaching, I would say, THIS Saturday rather than NEXT

Just say, "a week from Saturday" for clarity. "Next Saturday" does grammatically mean the nearest upcoming Saturday. When people say, "the Saturday after next," they aren't talking 3 weeks away.

I think "next Saturday" is derived from "Saturday of next week", just as "this Saturday" means "Saturday of this week"

When speaking about days of the week - of which there are only seven - some clarification must be made.

When speaking about "the next time I see you," you're talking about some action to be taken <i>in the future</i>, so no distinction is needed to clarify that you don't mean "this time."

With days of the week, however - they're <i>all</i> in the future, so more distinctions must be made.

Anyway - that's my guess.
YRMV.

Maybe it could be classified as a figure of speech.

I had an Irish psych prof in University who said (on a Tuesday class):

"We'll be having a short in-class essay assignment next Thursday"

And, when we showed up to class two days later, lo and behold.... we had a short in-class essay assignment to complete. Horrifying.

So, possibly not everyone means "next week's day-in-question".

A thought: If it's Thursday today, and I say "can you get this to me by Thursday", would you think I was referring to the current day, or the one that occurs in the following week (i.e. 7 days later)?

indeed...one of those things that has come to be percieved as proper usage I guess?

i like yournamehere's take on things -- sounds like a plausible explanantion...

kulrblind, that's great! Guess your psych prof was testing your grammar knowledge??

If it was thursday and I said "get me this by thursday", I would assume the next thursday, because there's no next or this there.

...and by next, I mean the dictionary definition!

This is the way I always thought of it, but a few years ago I was talking to a friend at college and I reminded him that there were no classes "Next Friday". He thinks the opposite of me on this issue and didn't show up to class friday that week. Oops