grammaticality - "Planning for next year" vs. "planning for the next year"



I would like to start planning for next year.



In the above sentence, there is no definite article before the words next year. Should it be present, as in the following sentence which sounds far less natural to me?



I would like to start planning for the next year.



Or, is it more proper to leave it out as in the first sentence? What is the reasoning behind the correct usage in this context?



Answer



Next in this usage is better regarded as a determiner rather than as an adjective. ( http://simple.wiktionary.org/wiki/next ) (compare last year, this year). The use of another definite determiner (the) is thus superfluous. However, this does not apply with following, present, and previous, where the definite article is needed to pre-modify:


I wanted to start planning for the following year.


I'd guess that following etc are behaving more like adjectives, so there needs to be a definite determiner (the definite article) added. Next grades into adjectivalness, so the definite article is an option. With this, the adjectival component does not exist, so we can't say for the this year.


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