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116 Bogus clusters, syllabic consonants and vowel syncope. . .The only difference between the representations in (10a) and (10b) isthat in the former the bogus cluster is separated by a lexically presentalternating vowel, while the latter is separated by a lexically empty nucleus.However, this solution has some serious flaws. First, note thatalthough Harris (1994) hints at the idea that a syllabic consonant canreplace the syncope-prone schwa, he does not pursue this idea any further.Secondly, if syncope is triggered by the following nucleus through ProperGovernment it means that a schwa flanked by two obstruents shoulddisappear due to the same reason, i.e. the application of PG. Additionally,the theory at this stage is still not able to provide a satisfactory explanationof the absence of both ‘static’ and ‘dynamic’ bogus clusters from theword-initial position. Finally, we need an explanation for the behaviourof the lateral [l] in two related forms, that is, fiddle [fId®l] and fiddler [fIdl«].More exactly, why in the former case is there only one option available(syllabic consonant), while in the latter instead of a syllabic consonantwe find a bogus cluster? We shall address these questions in the secondpart of this chapter, which is devoted to the analysis of sonorants in therelevant contexts.To sum up, apart from branching onsets and coda-onset sequencesGP is forced to recognise a third possibility, that is, a sequence of onsetsseparated by the empty governed nucleus. GP makes use of the latter structureto represent both bogus clusters and syncope-created bogus clusters.Crucially, it was noted that there was an attempt to combine syncope-relatedbogus clusters and syllabic consonants. This line of inquiry, however,rather than being finalised has been abandoned halfway through. Coherentas it is, the solution offered by GP suffers from some weaknesses.The most evident one is the inability to explain the lack of word-initialbogus clusters.3.2. German case3.2.1. IntroductionThis sub-section aims at presenting the relevant data concerning bogusclusters in German. As was mentioned above, it is not our main concern