---
title: The name Nairobi comes from the Maasai expression meaning 'cool wate… — Nairobi · tree and pragmatics
description: The name Nairobi comes from the Maasai expression meaning 'cool waters'. referring to the cold water stream which flowed through the area. Who acts: name, Maasai expression, cold water stream. A sentence of Wikipedia's «Nairobi» with its dependency tree and pragmatics.
---

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# Nairobi, sentence 18

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From Wikipedia, [«Nairobi»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairobi), 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 Nairobi comes from the Maasai expression meaning 'cool waters'. referring to the cold water stream which flowed through the area.

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**Who acts:** name, Maasai expression, cold water stream · **What happens:** come, mean, refer, flow · **To what, where:** Maasai expression, cool waters, area

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Nairobi». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (name, Maasai expression, cold water stream), 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:Nairobi:18
# text = The name Nairobi comes from the Maasai expression meaning 'cool waters'. referring to the cold water stream which flowed through the area.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	name	name	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
3	Nairobi	Nairobi	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	2	appos	_	_
4	comes	come	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	from	from	ADP	IN	_	8	case	_	_
6	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	8	det	_	_
7	Maasai	Maasai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	8	compound	_	_
8	expression	expression	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obl	_	_
9	meaning	mean	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	8	acl	_	_
10	'	'	PUNCT	``	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
11	cool	cool	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	12	amod	_	_
12	waters	water	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
13	'	'	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	15	punct	_	_
15	referring	refer	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	9	advcl	_	_
16	to	to	ADP	IN	_	20	case	_	_
17	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	20	det	_	_
18	cold	cold	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	20	amod	_	_
19	water	water	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	20	compound	_	_
20	stream	stream	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	15	obl	_	_
21	which	which	PRON	WDT	PronType=Rel	22	nsubj	_	_
22	flowed	flow	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	20	acl:relcl	_	_
23	through	through	ADP	IN	_	25	case	_	_
24	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	25	det	_	_
25	area	area	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
26	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **come** | present | the name |  |  | the Maasai expression |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme from expression=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **mean** | gerund | the Maasai expression *not said here* | cool waters |  |  |  |  | vn intend-61.2-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent water=Topic |
| 3 | **refer** | gerund | the Maasai expression *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the cold water stream | vn relate-86.2-2 «NP V PP.co-theme»: agent=Theme to stream=Co-Theme |
| 4 | **flow** | past | the cold water stream |  |  | the area |  |  | vn appear-48.1.1 «NP V PP.location»: agent=Theme through area=Location |

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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, «Nairobi», 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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