---
title: Marco Polo said he served Kublai Khan for 17 years; some doubted it… — China: the Song and the Mongols · tree and pragmatics
description: Marco Polo said he served Kublai Khan for 17 years; some doubted it because he did not mention the Great Wall or tea, but most historians think he really went, because details like salt and paper money fit Chinese records. Who acts: Marco, some, most historians, details. A sentence of the lesson «Ch
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/55-china-the-song-and-the-mongols/11/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / [China: the Song and the Mongols](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/55-china-the-song-and-the-mongols/) / 11

# China: the Song and the Mongols, sentence 11

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
Marco Polo said he served Kublai Khan for 17 years; some doubted it because he did not mention the Great Wall or tea, but most historians think he really went, because details like salt and paper money fit Chinese records.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Marco, some, most historians, details · **What happens:** say, serve, doubt, not mention, think, go · **To what, where:** Kublai Khan, dynasty, Great Wall, Chinese records · **Speech:** someone speaks here

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of the lesson «China: the Song and the Mongols» of the history course of Mova's primary school. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Marco, some, most historians, details), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = school:history:055-china-the-song-and-the-mongols.lesson:11
# text = Marco Polo said he served Kublai Khan for 17 years; some doubted it because he did not mention the Great Wall or tea, but most historians think he really went, because details like salt and paper money fit Chinese records.
# source = school lesson (ours)
# course = history
# lesson = 055-china-the-song-and-the-mongols.lesson
# annotation = Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R8-pos-agree ×2
1	Marco	Marco	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	3	nsubj	_	_
2	Polo	Polo	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	1	flat	_	_
3	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
4	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	5	nsubj	_	_
5	served	serve	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	ccomp	_	_
6	Kublai	Kublai	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	7	compound	_	_
7	Khan	Khan	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	5	obj	_	_
8	for	for	ADP	IN	_	10	case	_	_
9	17	17	NUM	CD	NumForm=Digit|NumType=Card	10	nummod	_	_
10	years	year	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	5	obl	_	_
11	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	13	punct	_	_
12	some	some	DET	DT	PronType=Ind	13	nsubj	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=13:nsubj|HaikuPos=PRON:DT:PronType=Ind
13	doubted	doubt	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	3	parataxis	_	_
14	it	it	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Neut|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	13	obj	_	_
15	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
16	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
17	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	aux	_	_
18	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	19	advmod	_	_
19	mention	mention	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	13	advcl	_	_
20	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	22	det	_	_
21	Great	Great	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	22	compound	_	_
22	Wall	Wall	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	19	obj	_	Agree=R8-pos-agree|Haiku=19:obj|HaikuPos=NOUN:NN:Number=Sing
23	or	or	CCONJ	CC	_	24	cc	_	_
24	tea	tea	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	22	conj	_	_
25	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	29	punct	_	_
26	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	29	cc	_	_
27	most	most	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	28	amod	_	_
28	historians	historian	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	29	nsubj	_	_
29	think	think	VERB	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	3	conj	_	_
30	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	32	nsubj	_	_
31	really	really	ADV	RB	_	32	advmod	_	_
32	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	29	ccomp	_	_
33	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	41	punct	_	_
34	because	because	SCONJ	IN	_	41	mark	_	_
35	details	detail	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	nsubj	_	_
36	like	like	ADP	IN	_	40	case	_	_
37	salt	salt	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	40	compound	_	_
38	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	39	cc	_	_
39	paper	paper	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	37	conj	_	_
40	money	money	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	35	nmod	_	_
41	fit	fit	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	32	conj	_	_
42	Chinese	Chinese	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	43	amod	_	_
43	records	record	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	41	obj	_	_
44	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .note -->
No stored speech act for this sentence.

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | Marco |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 2 | **serve** | past | Marco | Kublai Khan |  |  | year |  | vn masquerade-29.6-2 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent khan=Attribute |
| 3 | **doubt** | past | some | dynasty |  |  |  |  | vn judgment-33.1-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Theme |
| 4 | **not** **mention** *speech: other* | past · do-support | Marco | the Great Wall or tea |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent wall=Topic |
| 5 | **think** *speech: other* | present | most historians |  |  |  |  |  | vn consider-29.9-2 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Theme |
| 6 | **go** | past | Marco |  |  |  |  |  | vn disappearance-48.2-1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |
| 7 | **fit** | past | details like salt money | Chinese records |  |  |  |  | vn adjust-26.9 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent record=Patient |

<!-- .note -->
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.

<!-- div src -->

**Licence: [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)**, as the whole of Mova corpus 0.4, of which this treebank (the agreed school, `mova-school-agreed-en.conllu`) is part. The lessons were written for Mova's primary school. Sentence `school:history:055-china-the-song-and-the-mongols.lesson:11`.

**The tree:** Mova annot: Rust (en) → Haiku 5.5 (medium, Batches API) patches; gates UD 2.18; agreed by treeagree rules (Stanza, Trankit, spaCy trf): R8-pos-agree ×2. **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the lesson read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence.

See the [release 0.4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/releases/0.4/).

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [China: the Song and the Mongols, 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/55-china-the-song-and-the-mongols/10/)
- next →: [China: the Song and the Mongols, 12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/55-china-the-song-and-the-mongols/12/)
- ↑ back to [the lesson](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/55-china-the-song-and-the-mongols/)