The morphology of essence predicates in Chatino

In the Chatino language [Oto-Manguean; Mexico], essence predicates are a class of pred-
icative lexemes exhibiting a special complex of properties that distinguishes them from
other kinds of predicates. We characterize this complex of properties with evidence from
the San Juan Quiahije (SJQ) variety of Chatino. After examining the principal morphosyn-
tactic characteristics of essence predicates, we focus particular attention on their patterns
of person/number marking, on which basis we distinguish two possible hypotheses about
the grammatical status of essence predicates: the possessed-subject hypothesis and the com-
pound predicate hypothesis. We then assess these hypotheses in light of four kinds of evi-
dence: the structural variety of essence predicates, their external syntax, their general lack
of semantic compositionality, and their relation to the distributional flexibility of subject-
agreement marking in Chatino. On the basis of this evidence, we conclude that neither the
possessed-subject hypothesis nor the compound predicate hypothesis is fully adequate; we
therefore propose an alternative way of situating essence predicates in the wider context of
Chatino morphosyntax.