---
title: The Maouri believe that the city's Maouri founders were driven away… — Niamey · tree and pragmatics
description: The Maouri believe that the city's Maouri founders were driven away from the nearby river island of Néni Goungou by the Fula villagers of Bitinkodji; they say the city was built next to a landmark tree called Gna and was thus named "place of the Gna", or Gna-mé. Who acts: Maouri, Fula villagers, fou
---

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# Niamey, sentence 37

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From Wikipedia, [«Niamey»](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niamey), 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 Maouri believe that the city's Maouri founders were driven away from the nearby river island of Néni Goungou by the Fula villagers of Bitinkodji; they say the city was built next to a landmark tree called Gna and was thus named "place of the Gna", or Gna-mé.

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**Who acts:** Maouri, Fula villagers, founders · **What happens:** believe, drive away, say, build, call, name · **To what, where:** Maouri founders, nearby river island, city, landmark tree, place · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of the English Wikipedia article «Niamey». The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Maouri, Fula villagers, founders), 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:Niamey:37
# text = The Maouri believe that the city's Maouri founders were driven away from the nearby river island of Néni Goungou by the Fula villagers of Bitinkodji; they say the city was built next to a landmark tree called Gna and was thus named "place of the Gna", or Gna-mé.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Maouri	Maouri	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
3	believe	believe	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	that	that	SCONJ	IN	_	11	mark	_	_
5	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	6	det	_	_
6	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	9	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	's	's	PART	POS	_	6	case	_	_
8	Maouri	Maouri	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	9	compound	_	_
9	founders	founder	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	nsubj:pass	_	_
10	were	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	11	aux:pass	_	_
11	driven	drive	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	3	ccomp	_	_
12	away	away	ADV	RB	_	11	advmod	_	_
13	from	from	ADP	IN	_	17	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	17	det	_	_
15	nearby	nearby	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	17	amod	_	_
16	river	river	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	compound	_	_
17	island	island	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	obl	_	_
18	of	of	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	Néni	Néni	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	17	nmod	_	_
20	Goungou	Goungou	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	flat	_	_
21	by	by	ADP	IN	_	24	case	_	_
22	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
23	Fula	Fula	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	compound	_	_
24	villagers	villager	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	11	obl	_	_
25	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
26	Bitinkodji	Bitinkodji	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	24	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	29	punct	_	_
28	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	29	nsubj	_	_
29	say	say	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
30	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	31	det	_	_
31	city	city	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	nsubj:pass	_	_
32	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	33	aux:pass	_	_
33	built	build	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	29	ccomp	_	_
34	next	next	ADV	RB	_	33	advmod	_	_
35	to	to	ADP	IN	_	38	case	_	_
36	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	38	det	_	_
37	landmark	landmark	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	38	compound	_	_
38	tree	tree	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	33	obl	_	_
39	called	call	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	38	acl	_	_
40	Gna	Gna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	39	xcomp	_	_
41	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	44	cc	_	_
42	was	be	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	44	aux:pass	_	_
43	thus	thus	ADV	RB	_	44	advmod	_	_
44	named	name	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part	33	conj	_	_
45	"	"	PUNCT	``	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
46	place	place	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	44	xcomp	_	_
47	of	of	ADP	IN	_	49	case	_	_
48	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	49	det	_	_
49	Gna	Gna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	46	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
50	"	"	PUNCT	''	_	46	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
51	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	55	punct	_	_
52	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	55	cc	_	_
53	Gna	Gna	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	55	compound	_	SpaceAfter=No
54	-	-	PUNCT	HYPH	_	53	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
55	mé	mé	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	29	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
56	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **believe** | present | the Maouri |  |  |  |  |  | vn admire-31.2 «NP V that S»: agent=Experiencer clause=Stimulus |
| 2 | **drive away** | past · passive | the Fula villagers of Bitinkodji | the city's Maouri founders |  | the nearby river island of Néni |  | away *property* | vn nonvehicle-51.4.2-1 «NP V NP PP.location»: agent=Agent subject=Theme from island=Trajectory |
| 3 | **say** *speech: assert* | present | founders *= founder* |  |  |  |  | Gna mé *conj* | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **build** | past · passive |  | the city |  |  |  | to a landmark tree; next *property* | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: subject=Product |
| 5 | **call** | participle |  | a landmark tree *not said here* |  |  |  | Gna *xcomp* | vn initiate\_communication-37.4.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 6 | **name** | past · passive |  | place of the Gna |  |  |  | thus *property* | vn appoint-29.1 «NP V NP» |

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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, «Niamey», 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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