Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

My Korean co-teacher asked me if

1) "I am gravely concerned about the sequence of this bill"

as meaning the same as

2) "I am gravely concerned about the consequence of this bill"

But I highly highly don't think that sentence #1 is correct. However, i checked the dictionary here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sequence

and I saw that it listed "consequence" and "result" as a synonym. Is this correct? How come I've never once heard of "sequence" meaning "result." Is it only in some offshoot dialect I've never heard of? A student seems to be challenging my co-teacher on the matter, but I am 99.999999% sure the student is wrong. But yet the dictionary has it there. Anyways, if the dictionary is right (it surely is) then how to construct a sentence using "sequence"? Makes no sense to me.

Also, I tried googling "As a sequence of this" and I got these results:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=%22as+a+sequence+of+this%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=92247cea9b82331

Is it a British English thing? I've noticed several scientific uses of it too.

[Moldy Rutabaga]

I have never heard of such a usage in American, Canadian, or British English. I suppose under certain conditions it could be correct to be concerned about the sequence of a bill, if the ordering of the things you were paying for somehow affected the calculation of the total amount, but that would be very unusual.

I think Merriam-Webster, in giving the fourth meaning of sequence and consequence / result as synonyms, means a chain of logic -- I'm guessing here, but maybe there are certain situations where you refer to events in a chain as being both consequences and parts of a sequence. At any rate, I don't think it fits a bill, and I think I would tell your co-teachers to use consequence. I think idiomatically most people would say consequences or implications or even meaning instead anyway.

[brento1138]

I'm especially wondering why when I googled it, I suddenly got all these weird results ...

[jvalmer]

"I am gravely concerned about the sequence of this bill"

How I understand this is - I am concerned about the order of things to be done to get the bill passed.

[brento1138]

[Caffeinated]

I don't believe the 3 examples you quoted above make "sequence" synonymous with "result/consequence." The above sentences use "sequence" in the sense of being part of a series or chain of events comprising the entire result. Reword the parts that were bolded and perhaps you'll get what I'm coming at.

[davidck]

I would think that "sequence of this bill" would mean what happens next NOT as a result of bill but just whatever happens next in sequence.
"Consequence of this bill" would me what happens next as a direct result of the bill.
That would be my guess.

[jugbandjames]

Dictionaries only give possible definitions for words and give very little information on the frequency of their use. So, the word only needed to be used a few times in whatever corpus they were using to warrant an entry. In addition, dictionaries will sometimes invent words or meanings that don't actually exist. They do this in order to prove copyright infringement claims. I'm not saying that's the case here, but you have to take definitions with a grain of salt. Just because a dictionary lists a possible meaning for a word doesn't mean anyone will understand what you're saying if you use it in that way. Because of the low frequency of its use, it may not be in anyone's vocabulary.

[alljokingaside]

Sequence refers to an ordering of things. It can be either a noun or a verb that does to a noun. The prefix con- (or com-; "together/with") seems to modify this t. verb/noun (note origin: sequi- "to follow") to restrict it to that specific incidence of a sequencing and to a state of...being (or something like it/the noun state).

Consequence says something to the effect of "with X follows Y" (or "X necessitates Y), whereas sequence simply says "X and then Y (and perhaps Z)" sit in this order, or to make "X, Y, Z" sit in this order (even if Y smells rank today)

Something can be sequenced (like mad scientists do to genes [note- no causal effects; placing Y in the dumpster does not necessarily result in Z walking away; this is just the sequence of events, or the events sequenced in this manner because god just wanted it this way and made it so]) or can exist in a sequence (like numbers, people in a line, or "shiny sequences on a headband"), but nothing can be consequenced; things can only exist as a/resulting from a/yielding a consequence (ie Y shi**ing in the dumpster will make, as a consequence, Z stare blankly for a second, then briskly walk away)