  In this paper we elaborate on the idea of an emergent spacetime which arises
due to the dynamical breaking of diffeomorphism invariance in the early
universe. In preparation for an explicit symmetry breaking scenario, we
consider nonlinear realizations of the group of analytical diffeomorphisms
which provide a unified description of spacetime structures. We find that
gravitational fields, such as the affine connection, metric and coordinates,
can all be interpreted as Goldstone fields of the diffeomorphism group. We then
construct a Higgs mechanism for gravity in which an affine spacetime evolves
into a Riemannian one by the condensation of a metric. The symmetry breaking
potential is identical to that of hybrid inflation but with the non-inflaton
scalar extended to a symmetric second rank tensor. This tensor is required for
the realization of the metric as a Higgs field. We finally comment on the role
of Goldstone coordinates as a dynamical fluid of reference.
