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From: Antonio Marques <no_email@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Re: Next ambiguity
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 2024 17:23:14 -0000 (UTC)
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Athel Cornish-Bowden <me@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I'm wondering how common ambiguity in the word "next" is. My first 
> wife, when I was driving and she was giving directions, would say, for 
> example, "take the next right", which we would understand differently; 
> for me the next right would mean right at the intersection we are just 
> coming to. For her it meant the one after it. There was a similar 
> ambiguity for weeks. If I say "next week" I mean the week that starts 
> tomorrow, Monday 22nd July: for her it would mean the week that starts 
> on the 29th.
> 
> In case it's relevant, I mention that my ex-wife is from California, 
> one of the few native adult Californians that I ever came across when I 
> lived in California.
> 

I don't think this is exclusive to english. My consensus is that 'next' has
to refer to something else than 'this', but I note it hasn't been adopted
by everyone.