Can "Zusammenstellung" mean "summary"?

Question

As far as I understand, "Zusammenstellung" means a compilation, a grouping of something. That is what I gather from Duden, Wictionary, etc.

But in Linguee, it is also sometimes translated by "summary". To me, a "summary" is a completely different concept as a "compilation". Indeed, with a "summary" one would necessarily lose some substance, while a "compilation" contains the concept of exhaustivity, without losing any of the "elements".

Therefore: can the German word "Zusammenstellung" really mean "summary", or is it just a bad translation in Linguee?

Answer 1

In my feeling, "Zusammenfassung" and "Zusammenstellung" are clearly different, I don't see how context might influence this. "Zusammenfassung" = "summary" is about a reduced informational content (or it is a piece of text that has such a kind of content), while "Zusammenstellung" is a combination of things. The latter could also cover bits of information, but "Informationen zusammenstellen" does not entail that the result will be short. You might in turn want a summary for what you get from this Zusammenstellung.

PS: I've just noticed something: "Zusammenfassung" can also be used in a sense like "combination / Zusammenstellung" - e.g. "Inhalte zu einem eigenen Kapitel zusammenfassen" (grouping contents as a separate chapter). But this is not a problem for our question, for it doesn't work the other way round: "Zusammenstellung" still cannot mean "summary".

Answer 2

The question is difficult to answer without context - a concrete sentence or paragraph, where the word is used.

"Zusammenstellung" is a Verb (verb) made "*Nomen" (noun). The Verb is "zusammenstellen", which itself is a composite word: "zusammen" means "together" and "stellen" which means "to put" or "to position". "Zusamenstellen" means "to put together" (to compile, but sometimes also "to assemble") and a "Zusammenstellung" is the result of this - something which has been put together.

This is usually a "compilation" but sometimes what was put together might be an overview, a summary or similar things. This is why context is important.

So, in the general way you asked, your answer is: it depends. I hope to have made clear what actually it depends on.

Answer 3

In contrast to what the currently accepted answer claims, there is at least one notable resource that suggests that a Zusammenstellung may be used to mean "summary": Here's what the DWDS provides as one of two meaning explanations for Zusammenstellung:

geordnete Übersicht

Beispiel: das Buch bringt eine übersichtliche Zusammenstellung der wichtigsten Forschungsergebnisse

The provided example clarifies that in this sense, a Zusammenstellung is not just a compilation of all relevant findings, but a condensed compilation of only the most important ones – or in other words, a summary of the most relevant findings.

Note, however, that Zusammenfassung and Zusammenstellung are still not fully synonymous. A sentence like Ich gebe dir mal eine Zusammenstellung des Films von gestern ("I'll give you a summary of yesterday's movie") is very unidiomatic, while Zusammenfassung would be fully acceptable here. My suspicion is that Zusammenstellung can be used to mean "summary" in academic genres in particular (as in the DWDS example), but not in more general contexts.

Answer 4

It doesn't mean the same thing. I don't know how Linguee works, but it may have found some documents where people put "Zusammenstellung" at or near the end of the document. If I found that at the end of certain documents (Think receipt type documents with a list of line items), I might very well interpret it as a type of summary. But I don't think it's conventional.