Thread: утверждать, заглавие, распечатать, напечатать, составлять

Hey guys- I think I understand these words, but I want to be sure that I have an exact understanding of what they mean... we all know how easy it is to use "almost" the right word, and I tend to get caught in loops with mono-lingual Russian dictionaries and Russian-English ones.... I will be really grateful for your help!
утверждать- Does this just mean "to state" something, like "The government stated that the economy would shrink 1% in 2010", ie, it's just a statement, and it may be true or false? It seems I've also heard it used in contexts where it could mean "to confirm", like, "The police confirmed that the criminal had been captured".
заглавие- Is this only the title of an article, or can it also be the title of a book?
распечатать, напечатать- If I understand right, the first one means "to print (on a printer)" and the second means "to print (as in, to publish)".
составлять- I have seen this translated as "to compile", but again, dictionaries can lead us astray! Does it mean, for example, "The authors of the famous literary anthology have compiled a volume of 1990's literature?"
Thanks again!

Originally Posted by tim_in_kiev

утверждать- Does this just mean "to state" something, like "The government stated that the economy would shrink 1% in 2010", ie, it's just a statement, and it may be true or false?

Just a statement. And as every statement made by gov-t, it is false.

It seems I've also heard it used in contexts where it could mean "to confirm", like, "The police confirmed that the criminal had been captured".

It stil means something different. "Подтверждает" - as it confirms statements from other sources, not makes a statement on its own.

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распечатать, напечатать- If I understand right, the first one means "to print (on a printer)" and the second means "to print (as in, to publish)".
[/quote]
Both can mean 'print on a printer', but only the second means 'to publish'.

составлять- I have seen this translated as "to compile", but again, dictionaries can lead us astray! Does it mean, for example, "The authors of the famous literary anthology have compiled a volume of 1990's literature?"

No. In this context - 'обработали' fits better. 'составили' takes as the object the result of the action, not the raw source - 'обработали массу литературы и составили список часто употребляемых выражений'

Originally Posted by tim_in_kiev

заглавие- Is this only the title of an article, or can it also be the title of a book?

заглавие is a bit archaic. заголовок is more usual, but It is a title of the article or chapter, not of the book. Actually it is more like heading or caption. заголовок of the article can include also authors, affiliations, abstract etc. For the title of the book (and often even of the article) название is used.

All other your guesses are OK.

Thanks, guys.