When linearization triggers embedded V2: Evidence from Breton

In this chapter, I present a subset of Breton embedded verb-second word orders. These data are intriguing because they implicate operations in embedded domains which appear to be optional. By contrast, we know that in matrix clauses the same operations are last resort, non-optional ones. I show that a proper ordering of operations at PF can ascribe optionality to a dialect parameter that allows for the exclusion of high functional heads from the start of a linearization domain. If and only if a functional head is excluded, would we observe last resort operations for T2. This ordering of operations is significant for our study of the modularity of grammar, because linearization of the syntactic structure can be shown to precede a set of morphological operations which operate in a linear domain.