code: def add_ne(self, ne):
          
          ne_id = self.get_element_id(ne)
          ne_label = 'ne:'+ne.attrib['type']
          self.add_node(ne_id, layers={self.ns, self.ns+':ne'},
                        attr_dict=self.element_attribs_to_dict(ne),
                        label=ne_label)
          # possible children: [('word', 78703), ('node', 11152), ('ne', 49)]
          for child in ne.iterchildren():
              child_id = self.get_element_id(child)
              self.add_edge(ne_id, child_id, layers={self.ns, self.ns+':ne'},
                            edge_type=dg.EdgeTypes.spanning_relation,
                            label=ne_label)
docs: Parameters
          ----------
          ne : etree.Element
              etree representation of a <ne> element
              (marks a text span -- (one or more <node> or <word> elements) as a named entity)
  
          Example
          -------
              <ne xml:id="ne_23" type="PER">
               <word xml:id="s3_2" form="Ute" pos="NE" morph="nsf" lemma="Ute" func="-" parent="s3_501" dephead="s3_1" deprel="APP"/>
               <word xml:id="s3_3" form="Wedemeier" pos="NE" morph="nsf" lemma="Wedemeier" func="-" parent="s3_501" dephead="s3_2" deprel="APP"/>
              </ne>