---
title: The name "Cotonou" means "by the river of death" in the Fon language. — Cotonou · tree and pragmatics
description: The name "Cotonou" means "by the river of death" in the Fon language. Who acts: name. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Cotonou» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Cotonou, sentence 6

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From Wikipedia, [«Cotonou»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotonou), revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). The trees and pragmatics of these pages, Mova's parse of that text, are CC BY-SA 4.0 too.

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The name "Cotonou" means "by the river of death" in the Fon language.

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**Who acts:** name · **What happens:** mean · **To what, where:** river

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Cotonou». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (name), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong. The article's note marks are left out of the parse.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = wikipedia:Cotonou:6
# text = The name "Cotonou" means "by the river of death" in the Fon language.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	nsubj	_	_
3	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	Cotonou	Cotonou	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
6	means	mean	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	10	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	by	by	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	10	det	_	_
10	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	death	death	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	10	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	10	punct	_	_
14	in	in	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
15	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
16	Fon	Fon	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	language	language	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	6	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **mean** | present | the name | the river of death |  |  |  | in the Fon language | vn representation-110.1 «NP V NP PP.attribute»: agent=Pivot river=Theme in language=Attribute |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** the English Wikipedia, «Cotonou», revision of the 2026-09-01 dump, CC BY-SA 4.0. **Tree:** Mova's own parse, CC BY-SA 4.0 as the text is. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the article read in order, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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