Re: Next ambiguity

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.