P27 · "This" at Hand and "That" on the Horizon + The Verb Grows a "Done" Face
Teacher notes / sources (students may skip)
Corresponds to: Perry Lesson XXVII = SKT บทที่ 27 (นิยมสรรพนาม และ Past Participle, demonstrative pronouns + past passive participle). First half of W15. Sources: Ruppel Ch.20 (अयम्/इदम्- paradigm) + Ch.39 (असौ/अदस्- paradigm, explicitly flagged "low-frequency · reference only") + Ch.8 (ta-participle system) + Goldman §19.1 (ayam/asāu near-far semantic contrast) + §10.5–10.12 (demythologizing PPP — "not passive") + SKT §27.1–27.9 (Thai terminology + the five -na classes), Perry § numbers still pending verification — comparative four-source mining notes at 260702-P13-P30-四源挖料. This unit (07) has no source-book base text, so the story and classroom arc were designed independently by the four-corner team (same approach as P20/P21/P26); all verbs are recycled from P11. Collapsed paradigm sections in SKT vol. 26–30 (e.g. the adas neuter table) are not quoted from the original (caveat stated, same precedent as P16/P17/P26); the rule prose is legible and has been cross-checked. Core idea in one line: Sanskrit's word for "that" comes in two flavors — near-deixis अयम् (right here, within reach) / far-deixis असौ (over on the horizon) — one more layer of distance-distinction than Chinese's simple "this/that." Today the verb also grows a "done" face (the -ta participle); this lesson only requires recognizing the face, not reciting the full paradigm from memory. Side thread (honest anchor discipline): demonstrative pronouns are a closed class — Thai borrowed exactly none of them (same as tad/tvad in P19) — which makes for a tidy little lesson in "closed classes don't get borrowed." But today's -ta participles are riddled with Thai cognate fossils (พุทธ / มุตตะ / ทิฏฐะ / หตะ), and they are twins from the same root as tomorrow's -ti abstract nouns (สันติ / มุตติ).
"Today's 'this/that' — Sanskrit splits it one notch finer than you're used to. The 'this' within reach, close enough to touch, is called अयम् ayam; the 'that' on the horizon, distant and removed, is called असौ asāu. Chinese only has two: this/that. Sanskrit has three (at hand — general — on the horizon).
And Thai? It borrowed exactly zero of them — pronouns are a 'closed class': every language grows its own and doesn't lend them out (you already saw this with tad/tvad back in P19 — no Thai hook there either). So half of today's anchor is 'no hook found' — and that absence is itself a piece of knowledge.
But the other half of today swings the opposite way — hooks overflowing. Tack a -ta onto the tail of a verb, and it grows a 'done' face meaning 'has already...' — and these done-faces are things Thai uses every single day:
พุทธ (Thai: "Buddha") ← बुद्ध buddha "one who has awakened" (√budh 'to wake' + -ta) — the Buddha is literally 'the one who woke up.'
มุตตะ / the มุกฺต inside วิมุตติ (Thai: "liberated") ← मुक्त mukta "one who has been released" (√muc 'to release' + -ta) — the Thai dictionary glosses it as 'ซึ่งพ้นแล้ว' (already freed), which is precisely the meaning of the done-face, word for word.
ทิฏฐะ (Thai: "seen") ← दृष्ट dṛṣṭa "one who has been seen" (√dṛś 'to see' + -ta) — dictionary gloss 'อันบุคคลเห็นแล้ว' (already seen by someone).
หตะ (Thai: "slain") ← हत hata "one who has been struck down" (√han 'to strike' + -ta). All four fossils are living proof of 'verb + -ta = done-face.'"
Buddha-sandhi ice-breaker (a bit of fun):
"Why does budh + ta not come out as \*budhta, but as buddha? Sanskrit words have a little internal sandhi hiding in their bellies: an aspirated voiced consonant collides with t, the t assimilates, and the aspiration hops back one slot → dh + t → ddh. The name 'Buddha' is a direct product of this rule. Likewise muc + ta → mukta (c + t → kt), dṛś + ta → dṛṣṭa (ś + t → ṣṭ). Today you only need to recognize these faces — you don't have to spell them yourself; spelling practice waits for the crystallization lesson."
No new Decoder rule this lesson (rule pool wrap-up, mostly review): demonstrative pronouns as a closed class have no hooks; the Thai fossils of the -ta done-face all run on old rules — พุทธ (b→พ already taught + final a drops, D1), ทิฏฐะ (ṛ→ฤ B1 + ṣṭ→ฏฐ), หตะ (h→ห + t→ด C3 + final a surfaces, D5), มุตตะ (E5 twin Pali/Sanskrit forms: the formal spelling มุกฺต keeps the consonant cluster / the Pali-assimilated มุตตะ has kt→tt) — no new entries. Today's real "decoding" is a lesson in morphological pattern-recognition: -ta (done-face) and -ti are twins from the same root — buddha↔buddhi, mukta↔mukti, same root, same internal sandhi, only the tail changes.
(Verbs all recycled from P11: apaśyat/apṛcchat/avadat (augment + secondary endings). Familiar noun faces: kumāra←P01, ṛṣi←P04, path←P26 (recycled from the "where" case, पथि), duḥkha←P04; the only new material is two demonstrative pronouns (अयम्/असौ) and four participle done-faces (buddha/mukta/dṛṣṭa/hata/gata — recognize only) + one new mountain, parvata. One focus per sentence: ๑ scene-setting (fully recycled); ๒ near-deixis अयम् makes its entrance + asks a question; ๓ near अयम् vs. far असौ contrasted in the same sentence (this lesson's core point); ๔ done-faces as predicate — buddha/mukta/gata alone carry the whole sentence, not a single finite verb in sight. Sandhi fully recycled: ๑ पथ्यृषिम् (i→y, P04); ๒ कोऽयम्/कुमारोऽपृच्छत् (aḥ+a→o ', P02); ๓ पर्वतो दूरे (aḥ+voiced→o, P02) / गुरुरवदत् (uḥ+vowel→ur, same pattern as ṛṣir agnim in P04); ๔ बुद्धोऽयम् (P02) / मुक्तश्च (aḥ+c→aś c) / गतं दुःखम् (m→ṃ). Cognate-recognition points per sentence: ๑ path=บถ/ฤๅษี; ๒ กุมาร/ปฤจฉา (ayam counter-example · closed class, no cognate); ๓ ฤๅษี/บรรพต (asau counter-example · far-deixis has no cognate, the near-far contrast is the star); ๔ พุทธ←buddha/มุตตะ←mukta/ทุกข์←duḥkha (gata seen in the compound สวรรคต).)
Line one: near-deixis अयम् vs. far-deixis असौ — Sanskrit's "that" splits into two layers.
"You already learned सः/तत् ('that') back in P19. Today Sanskrit subdivides 'that' further:
The 'this' within reach, अयम् (right in front of you, within arm's reach; also serves as a general referent) — high-frequency, used every day.
The 'that' on the horizon, असौ (distant, removed, carrying a sense of psychological distance) — Goldman calls it 'the distal that, tinged with detachment.'
Three tiers laid out side by side: at hand अयम् — general सः — on the horizon असौ. Sentence ๓ of the story — 'this sage (near) / that mountain (far)' — is a live demonstration of exactly this distinction."
अयम्/इदम्- paradigm (excerpt · form-recognition, Ruppel Ch.20 + Goldman §19.1, pending Heritage machine-verification)
| Masc. Sg. | Neut. Sg. | Fem. Sg. | Masc. Pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom | अयम् ayam | इदम् idam | इयम् iyam | इमे ime |
| Acc | इमम् imam | इदम् idam | इमाम् imām | इमान् imān |
| Instr | अनेन anena | अनया anayā | एभिः ebhiḥ | |
| Gen | अस्य asya | अस्याः asyāḥ | एषाम् eṣām | |
| Loc | अस्मिन् asmin | अस्याम् asyām | एषु eṣu |
"A nice shortcut discovery: outside the nominative/accusative, अयम् is almost exactly your P19 तद्-family with the initial t- knocked off — tasya→asya, tasmin→asmin, teṣām→eṣām, teṣu→eṣu. Know the तद्-family and you already know most of अयम्. (A handful of little exceptions just need listening practice: instrumental अनेन/अनया add an extra an- up front; plural instrumental एभिः is not \*ऐः.)
A quirk in the nominative/accusative singular: अयम्/इदम्/इयम् across all three genders, and accusative इमम्/इदम्/इमाम् — all end in -am, which looks like an accusative. Watch out to tell nominative from accusative here."
असौ/अदस्- paradigm (excerpt · reference-lookup type, Ruppel Ch.39 + Goldman §19.1)
| Masc. Sg. | Neut. Sg. | Masc. Pl. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nom | असौ asāu | अदः adaḥ | अमी amī |
| Acc | अमुम् amum | अदः adaḥ | अमून् amūn |
| Instr | अमुना amunā | अमीभिः amībhiḥ | |
| Gen | अमुष्य amuṣya | अमीषाम् amīṣām | |
| Loc | अमुष्मिन् amuṣmin | अमीषु amīṣu |
"असौ is a reference-lookup form (Ruppel says outright it's low-frequency, mainly there for when you're flipping through a paradigm to check). Low-effort memory trick: memorize the nominative असौ / accusative अमुम् first, plus one mnemonic — 'if अमु or अमी is hiding in the stem, it's this word' — the rest follows by analogy. The far-deixis form is naturally rare; recognition is enough."
Line two: the verb's done-face — -ta, recognize only.
"Tack -ta onto a verb's tail (the root slims down first), and it grows a done-face — but this face wears two different expressions (Goldman flags this specifically — don't let the name fool you):
Verbs like hit, see, release (with an object) → the done-face means 'has been ...ed': हत hata 'has been struck down' (√han), दृष्ट dṛṣṭa 'has been seen' (√dṛś), मुक्त mukta 'has been released' (√muc). Who did it? Mark the doer with the instrument-hat.
Verbs like go, become (without an object) → the done-face means 'has ...ed': गत gata 'has gone' (√gam) — not 'has been gone'! The Thai royal-obituary term สวรรคต svargagata 'has passed on to heaven' is a living fossil of this exact 'has ...ed' face."
▸ Debunking a myth (a point Goldman singles out in his preface): the textbook name for this face is misleading — only verbs 'with an object' are truly 'has been ...ed'; gata is 'has gone' (he went himself, he wasn't 'been-gone'), and it doesn't necessarily mean 'yesterday' — the emphasis is on 'already completed,' not on 'happened in the past.' One line for the student page: "The done-face — 'has been ...ed' for verbs with an object, 'has ...ed' for verbs without one; don't let the name fool you."
Three uses of the done-face: (1) attached beside a noun describing it (changing hats along with the noun); (2) used as a noun itself (like datta, 'the thing given'); (3) standing in for the verb, carrying the whole sentence — story sentence ๔, "buddho 'yam, gataṃ duḥkham," runs entirely on done-faces, not one proper verb in it.
Done-face recognition chart (this lesson's main table — recognize, don't produce; pending Heritage machine-verification)
| Done-face | Root | Internal sandhi | Meaning | Thai fossil |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| बुद्ध buddha | √budh 'wake' | dh+t→ddh | has awakened (complete) | พุทธ |
| मुक्त mukta | √muc 'release' | c+t→kt | has been released | มุตตะ/มุกฺต |
| दृष्ट dṛṣṭa | √dṛś 'see' | ś+t→ṣṭ | has been seen | ทิฏฐะ |
| हत hata | √han 'strike' | root n drops | has been struck down | หตะ |
| गत gata | √gam 'go' | root m drops | has gone (went itself, not "been gone") | (compound สวรรคต) |
Building block (use-first, analyze-later — this lesson's set): शान्तिः śāntiḥ (peace · stillness).
"You may have heard oṃ śāntiḥ. It's built from √śam ('be still') + -ti, giving a 'name for a state' — it's the twin sibling from the same root as today's -ta done-face: -ta gives you a done-face, -ti gives you a name. Thai สันติ (peace) is exactly this word. Next lesson formally gives it its proper place; today, use first, analyze later."
TPRS wrap-up: "Where did the boy see whom? Which word did he use for 'this (near)'? Which word did the teacher use for 'that mountain (far)'? What were the sage's three done-faces?" — students answer using अयम्/असौ and buddha/mukta/gata, then recite sentence ๔ chorally in its sandhi form.
- "Three degrees of distance: at hand अयम् ('this' — right in front of you) / general सः ('that' — from P19) / on the horizon असौ ('that' — far off, detached) — one layer more than Chinese."
- "अयम्'s lazy hats: outside nominative/accusative it ≈ तद्-family minus t- (tasya→asya, tasmin→asmin, teṣām→eṣām); watch for nominative/accusative singular, which all end in -am."
- "Done-face (-ta): root + -ta = 'has ...ed.' Verb with an object → 'has been ...ed' (हत — struck down), verb without one → 'has ...ed' (गत — has gone, not "been gone"); the doer is marked with the instrument-hat."
- "-ta done-face ↔ -ti twin from the same root: buddha (พุทธ)↔buddhi, mukta (มุกฺต)↔mukti (มุตติ) — same root, same internal sandhi, only the tail changes."
Story's four sentences, both versions; near-far contrast slice: अयम्↔असौ (at hand vs. on the horizon, minimal pair); तद् minus t- slice: तस्य↔अस्य / तस्मिन्↔अस्मिन् / तेषु↔एषु (recycling P19, recognizing the new face); Three slow reads of Buddha's internal sandhi: budh+ta→buddha (dh+t→ddh) / muc+ta→mukta (c+t→kt) / dṛś+ta→dṛṣṭa (ś+t→ṣṭ); Twin-from-the-same-root pairs read aloud: बुद्ध↔बुद्धि (done-face vs. name) / मुक्त↔मुक्ति (same pattern); Sandhi slices side by side: कोऽयम्/कुमारोऽपृच्छत् (P02) / पथ्यृषिम् (P04) / गुरुरवदत् (uḥ→ur, P04) / मुक्तश्च (aḥ+c→aś) / गतं दुःखम् (m→ṃ).
(Teacher's reference notes: the full adas neuter/feminine table (SKT §27.3 collapsed table, archived for the crystallization lesson); the ena- pronoun (SKT §27.4, an unemphatic anaphoric usage when immediately following esa/ayam, has no nominative — beyond this lesson's load, covered in a later lesson); the five classes of PPP -na endings (SKT §27.9: pīna/kīrṇa/bhagna/bhinna/tūrṇa — this lesson teaches only the -ta branch, the -na branch comes later); causative/Class X forms take -ita (पातित pātita). SKT §27 word-list items reserved for decode-and-recycle (not entering the story for now, all SKT word-list items not individually verified against our own CSV): muktā pearl (มุกดา — false-friend caution: an extension of the feminine noun "the one released from its shell," not the PPP mukta itself) / vivāha wedding (วิวาห์) / vyādhi illness (พยาธิ) / rākṣasa rākṣasa-demon (รากษส) / hīna abandoned · inferior (หีน/หิน, PPP of √hā) / brahmacarya celibate studentship / madhuparka honey-mixture guest-offering. dṛṣṭi view · theory (ทฤษฎี) = -ti abstract noun, not the PPP dṛṣṭa — a perfect demonstration of the -ta/-ti twin pair.)
Demonstrative pronouns merge into the master pronoun table (Crystallization Lesson Six, covering the tad/tvad/mad families): अयम्/असौ serve as the head and tail rows of the "near — general — far" three-row layout, receiving their full paradigm (dual इमौ/अमू and the full feminine set, plus the adas neuter table, all laid out together, using a passive-recognition table: given the form, identify case and number, not recited from memory). PPP (the -ta participle) opens a separate new thread — it is not noun declension, it's the verb's participle system; going forward, "the done-face as predicate, no finite verb" will be the norm in reading, and this lesson only plants the seed of recognition — the -na branch's five subtypes, causative -ita, and the full syntax of the instrument-hat agent are left for later participle/syntax crystallization lessons. The "twin from the same root" relationship between the -ta participle and the -ti abstract noun is the bridge to the next lesson (i-stem feminines śānti/mukti).