Verb Second is syntactic

This chapter describes the V2 system of Dinka (Nilotic; South Sudan) in detail, focusing on those environments in which departures from V2 are tolerated. Dinka has a V2 effect both at the clause edge and at the edge of the verb phrase. The chapter shows that the way in which V2 is established in both places is dictated directly by the featural needs of each periphery. In particular, exceptions to V2 arise only when non-nominal elements must move to each edge. As a result, the Dinka patterns provide evidence for an approach to V2 in which V2 is encoded in the narrow syntax and represents featural requirements associated with specific functional heads.