“Next Friday” referring to Friday of next week.

[Jsage]

Hello, I’m hoping to settle a debate here. My brother maintains that because “next” refers to the immediately following in a sequence, “next Friday” refers to Friday of the week in wish one is currently. I say that “this Friday” refers to that, and when “next” and “Friday” are collocated, the meaning of “next” changes slightly. Which is correct?

 

[Jsage]

Hello, I’m hoping to settle a debate here. My brother maintains that because “next” refers to the immediately following in a sequence, “next Friday” refers to Friday of the week in wish one is currently. I say that “this Friday” refers to that, and when “next” and “Friday” are collocated, the meaning of “next” changes slightly. Which is correct?

Addendum: If s there another example of an adjective pairing with a noun in which a totally new and distinct meaning is created that is different from the constituent definitions?

 

[5jj]

My brother maintains that because “next” refers to the immediately following in a sequence, “next Friday” refers to Friday of the week in wish which one is currently. I say that “this Friday” refers to that,

I agree with you.

and when “next” and “Friday” are collocated, the meaning of “next” changes slightly. Which is correct?

I don't think the meaning of 'next' changes. It's still 'the one after this'.

 

[SoothingDave]

It is potentially ambiguous.

Outside of any context, "next" would refer to the Friday occurring soonest in time.

However, it's not odd at all to contrast "this Friday" with "next Friday." This Friday is an away game, but next Friday we're playing at home.

 

[jutfrank]

The phrase next Friday sequentially follows whatever Friday one is talking about, which could be referred to as either today, tomorrow, yesterday, or this Friday, depending on time of speaking.

If two days from now is Friday, next Friday is nine days from now.
If tomorrow is Friday, next Friday is eight days from now.
If today is Friday, next Friday is seven days from now.

But things get more uncertain when the referenced Friday is in past time:

If yesterday was Friday, next Friday is probably six days from now (although this would normally be referred to simply as Friday) but it could refer to thirteen days from now if it were used in contrast to the Friday that's six days from now.

 

[flos]

Not a teacher. (Added by moderator — see below).)

There is a useful constrruct which almost everyone I have met understands:
"next Friday" means not today or tomorrow, but the next occurring Friday.
"Friday next" means the Friday following "next Friday", i.e. the Friday of next week.
Some people find "Friday next" ambiguous; they usually ask for clarification.

 

[5jj]

"next Friday" means not today or tomorrow, but the next occurring Friday.

It doesn't. See post #5.

 

[Rover_KE]

flos, please read this extract from the forum rules:

You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly in your posts.

 

[flos]

Apologies. Noted.

 

[Rover_KE]

Hello, I’m hoping to settle a debate here.

I'm afraid that's not going to happen. People (even in the same family) disagree about this.

My own daughter and I argue about it constantly.

 

[jutfrank]

I'm afraid that's not going to happen. People (even in the same family) disagree about this.

My own daughter and I argue about it constantly.

Out of interest, and for the sake of friendly discussion, I'd be interested to hear more about where exactly the disagreement lies.

 

[jutfrank]

I wonder if members could help me identify exactly where any disagreement is. Imagine the following utterance.

a) Let's talk about it on Friday.

How many days into the future is the referenced Friday? It can't be one, because the speaker would obviously say tomorrow instead. It could be two, three, four, five, or six, but not seven (that would be expressed as next Friday) and not eight or more. Furthermore, you could replace the phrase on Friday with the phrase this Friday and get precisely the same meaning.

If we change the time phrase:

b) Let's talk about it next Friday.

Now, I assume we all agree that it could be seven days into the future.

Assuming that everyone agrees with everything above (please let me know if not), I have two questions:

Q1: Could utterance b) be referring to 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 days into the future?

Q2: Could utterance b) be referring to 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, or 13 days into the future? If not, what do you think you would be more likely to say?

 

[Barque]

I broadly agree.

I'd generally use "next Friday" to mean the Friday of the next week.

Today's Sunday the 5th. If I wanted to refer to Friday the 17th and said "next Friday", I might also either specify the date or say something like "not the coming one but the next". That's probably because Sunday's a sort of in-between day--some people consider it the beginning of the week and some consider it the end of the week.

 

[Rover_KE]

I'm afraid that's not going to happen. People (even in the same family) disagree about this.

My own daughter and I argue about it constantly.

Out of interest, and for the sake of friendly discussion, I'd be interested to hear more about where exactly the disagreement lies.

If it's Monday, and she makes a dental appointment for Friday (of the same week), she'll say she's going to the dentist's next Friday and I tell her she should say this Friday, or on Friday.