Recently, a reader pointed me to a post on The Repeal of Gravity Blog discussing the strangeness that can sometimes arise with expressions of relative dates (like “last Monday” or “last March”. He highlighted the troubles arising from using “last March” in April, which can often leave people wondering whether you mean the march that has just passed, or the previous one. Although I don’t have much to add to his discussion, it does remind me of an issue that often plagues my communication.
Nocturnolinguistics
I’m a bit of a night owl. It’s not at all unusual for me to be up and working, talking with friends online, or even posting on this site well after midnight, and often, that leaves me in an interesting situation linguistically.
Let’s say that it’s 1:30am on June 9th. I’m speaking with a friend online, and we decide that we’re going to make plans for 4:30pm on June 9th, the same day. Our plans are finalized, and finally, it’s time to say goodnight. So, not thinking, I say “OK, see you tomorrow at 4:30!”.
Often, my friend will just go along with it, confirm the time, and move on. However, I have some friends who are really tripped up by this. “Wait,” they’ll say, “We’ve got plans for 4:30pm today, right? We said the 9th, not the 10th.” After a bit of clarifying chat, all is well, but these minor miscommunications seem to highlight an interesting difference in perspective among different people.
For me (and some other people I talk with), “today” is defined by sleep. I think that “today”, means, roughly, “between now and when I go to sleep for the night”. As you would expect, “tomorrow” then refers to “after I’ve gone to sleep and gotten back up, but before I go back to sleep the next night”. Sounds a bit complicated, but it seems to work in practice.
Until I’ve woken up on the day of the event, it’s not “today” yet. Thus, if I’m still up at 3:30am and I’ve got a meeting at noon, that meeting is still “tomorrow” to me, as I’m planning to sleep before that meeting starts. However, if it’s 3:30am, and I’ve already slept for the night and just got up early, a noon meeting becomes “today”. This is a very relative sort of system, and although it works fine for me, it does seem to confuse some of my friends.
For other people, “tomorrow” is, quite literally, “the day that follows this one on the calendar”. So, the moment the clock strikes midnight, yesterday’s tomorrow becomes today, and today’s tomorrow is yesterday’s “day after tomorrow” (I love that sentence).
So, for these people, if a meeting happens in the same calendar day, it’s “today”. Even if they’re still awake from the prior day and it’s only 12:01am, a meeting at noon is “today”. These people will dutifully make the switch at midnight, and doing so seems perfectly natural.
With these two ways of looking at the usage of “today” and “tomorrow”, it can sometimes be difficult to bridge the gap, especially when you’re not sure what system the person you’re talking to prefers, but there are definitely ways around it.
As before, let’s say it’s 1:30am on Monday, June 9th, and I’m confirming an appointment at 4:30pm on Monday, June 9th. The absolute safest way to express it would be with a qualifying statement, for example, “I’ll see you today, June 9th, at 4:30pm”. However, this can be a bit official or stodgy sounding. Another way to get around the ambiguity would be to say “I’ll see you in 15 hours, at 4:30pm.” The most common phrasing I use is something like “I’ll see you tomorrow/today at 4:30pm”.
A Call to Comments
Even though there are ways around this ambiguity, the fact that people seem to use “today” and “tomorrow” differently is very interesting to me. Calling on the wonderful interactive power of the internet, I’d really appreciate if some readers would let me know which usages of “tomorrow” and “today” they tend to use in the wee hours of the morning, and whether that’s the same in any other languages they might speak. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, and I’m wondering how widespread these usages are.
So, please, leave your comments. Although I’ll be off to bed shortly, rest assured, I’ll have a look at them tomorrow morning… err, today? In 9 hours? Oh, screw it, I’ll just look at them Saturday. It’s much clearer that way.
Ahh, the joys of Linguistically Justified procrastination.
Tagged with Conventional Linguistics, Language Usage, Words, Phrases, and Idioms | 19 Comments
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I use ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ much as you do, and so do most other people I’ve had cause to notice. Notation like “in twelve hours’ time” is sometimes broken out for occasions when it’s comically late or when people are particularly looking forward to the coming event.
I am with you on defining today/tomorrow by sleep wake cycles, but also in terms of the sun rising.
Thanks for the inspirational credit, Linguistic Mystic. Glad to know you appreciated my post.
As for your question, I guess I tend to use sleep as the dividing line, although sunrise seems generally a good one also. But I have to admit to always being torn. That midnight line is such a temptation and I always wonder whether the person I’m speaking with might use it as their division between the days. The safest bet: Be in bed by midnight. :- )
I am always sound asleep before midnight. But back in the day when I was a full time party boy, I would have adjusted the clock at midnight. Mostly because I was up all night so using “sleep” as the rollover would never have been an option.
Your today/tomorrow problem only works if your sleep patterns still vaguely follow “normal” sleep patterns. Someone who works third shift and sleeps from 9 AM to 5 PM would have a hard time saying “tomorrow” at 7 AM Monday when refering to 7 PM Monday.
After midnight, I tend to continue using “today” as in the current waking cycle, but sometimes follow it up with some dumb comment about the discrepancy. So I might say something like:
“Today was very hectic at work…well, yesterday really.”
(OK, that’s rather contrived, since it’s contextually obvious I don’t really mean “today” in the literal sense…)
I’ve gotten into arguments with my wife over usage of the phrases “this weekend” versus “next weekend.” If it’s mid-week, part of my brain wants to say “next weekend” as being synonymous for “the weekend after this coming weekend.” It just feels to me like “next weekend” would be “the weekend at the end of next week.” I think most people probably interpret “this weekend” and “next weekend” to refer to the same thing, except when you’re actually *in* a weekend. And then you have problems with that convention during the ambiguous time after work on Friday evening, which some people consider part of “this weekend.”
Where I run into the today / tomorrow conundrum is the time difference between the US and Australia. My dad lives in San Diego but we are in Adelaide. Today is his b’day (4th Aug) but its still the day before in the states. So do I wish him today or wait till tomorrow?!
I generally use the sleep-relative method as you explained it, but if I need confirmation about a plan from someone else, I’ll use specific dates/days/times. If I slip into the technical version where midnight is the deciding time, I let whoever I’m talking to know that’s what I’m doing.
I’m a bit of a night owl myself and view tomorrow as after I’ve slept as well. My husband has the same view, but likes to make sarcastic jokes about the linguistic ambiguity. He’ll say something like “it is tomorrow,” or “don’t you mean today?” He especially likes to trip people up with this at a few minutes after midnight, when you might not have noticed that the next day had technically arrived.
On a somewhat related note, I think the Anglish words aftermorrow and fore-yester (dash added to prevent phonetic ambiguity) should be incorporated into English. Most other languages have these terms, and they are quite useful. I’ve also wondered if languages with these terms don’t have a more concrete idea of 2 days ago and 2 days from now. I also wonder if the Brits have a more concrete feeling for how long 2 weeks are as they frequently use the word fortnight.
Initially I agreed with the sleep-as-daily-boundary point of view, but then there are always irregularities.
When I was younger I used to be of the midnight-is-daily-boundary camp, but only in an immature respect; tripping people up for saying ‘today’ when they mean ‘yesterday’, and so on.
More recently, I used to work quite early on Sundays and would see people on their way home on Saturday night (there, see what I did?). We both agree that the time is what it is, but we may disagree about whether it is still ‘today’ (Saturday night) or now ‘tomorrow’ (Sunday morning).
Hmm, is it even important that independent observers agree considering their frame of reference? man, this is so Einsteinian.
Off the track slightly, but apparently most cultures in Papua Niugini (New Guinea) recognise sunset as the daily boundary.
And Sunny, Happy birthday to your Dad. It’s mine too today (in fact, it’s ‘today’, as in Sunday, for everyone by now).
The Jewish sabbath is also on the sunset time schedule.
According to Wikipedia about Shabbat: It is observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night.
Today and tomorrow are distinguished for me by sleep. If it is 2 am and I am going to bed I say “I will see you tomorrow” regardless of the fact that technically I will see you later today. This habit does make things confusing if I pull an allnighter. No sleep to divide my days!
“Nocturnolinguistics” — nice.
I’m also a night owl, and my usage follows sleep cycles as well. If I’m talking with a 12:01 sort of person, I will say “technically today” if they dislike my use of “tomorrow.”
Sometimes I have stayed up past sunrise. In these cases, sunrise trumps sleep cycles for me and it automatically becomes “tomorrow.” In which case I take it a sign that I really should stop messing around on the computer and get some sleep. :)
Even when working the late shift or pulling all-nighters in grad school, sleep has usually been my dividing line. However, if I’m still up at 5:15AM when someone else arises, I won’t make them stay in yesterday just because I haven’t made it to today yet.
When I worked graveyard shift, my co-workers and I would unintentionally (if we were being sincere) or intentionally (if we were in a bad mood or sleep-deprived) pervert the whole today/tomorrow convention.
Such an exchange wouldn’t be unheard of when leaving work at 6am, with the intention of returning on that same calendar day at 10pm:
Me: “Good night.”
Co-worker: “Thanks. See ya tonight.”
I tend to use it as you do, although, thinking about it, it has a bit more to do with when the sun comes up, and what is happening in the more mainstream time, too.
For instance: If it’s 3:30am, and I’m still awaks, then 7:00 is ‘tomorrow’.. If it’s 3:30am and I’m up at that crazy hour to catch a flight, etc, then 7:00 is ‘today’ However, if it’s 6:00am and I somehow have not made it in to bed, that’s probably still ‘tomorrow’, because the next day has so clearly started. Sometimes this is because it is light, but in winter, it mostly has to do with the fact that most people would consider that to be the start of their day.
The trouble, then, is where is the line? At what time between, say, 4:00 and 5:30 does today slip over to tomorrow? Confusing.
Usually me and my friends are using “today” and “tomorrow” the same way you do, which becomes even more interessting when sender and receiver are located in different time zones. Some of my friends misunderstand me intentionally, because it’s fun to play with meaning. But if real problems occur, people can check the meaning in conversation. But the problem with indexical terms is worse in written language. I once came to the class room and on the blackboard were these words: Class today in room x/y. So i wondered if it was a leftover from yesterday and pointed to someone else or if it was from today and my class was in another room.
When I worked graveyard shift, my co-workers and I would unintentionally (if we were being sincere) or intentionally (if we were in a bad mood or sleep-deprived) pervert the whole today/tomorrow convention.
Such an exchange wouldn’t be unheard of when leaving work at 6am, with the intention of returning on that same calendar day at 10pm:
Me: “Good night.”
Co-worker: “Thanks. See ya tonight.”
In the past I would define today/tomorrow by my sleep cycle, but once I started napping during the day, that process seemed to make the week advance rather quickly. Since then I have started to refer to ‘today’ beginning between midnight and about threeish, although I’m not usually up that late any more (or would it be early?).
To me, however, ‘next’ and ‘last’ refer to the most imminent iteration of that event. ‘Next weekend’ is the nearest weekend in the future, ‘last weekend’ is the nearest weekend in the past.