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124 Bogus clusters, syllabic consonants and vowel syncope. . .4.2. Partial geminates in German (S cheer 2003)The subject of our investigation in the present section is the representationof partial geminates in English and German. Specifically, we shallfocus on progressive nasal assimilation in the latter language. As pointedout in section 2.2 above, in progressive nasal assimilation a nasalnot only acquires the same place of articulation as the preceding obstruent,it also becomes syllabic. In order to explain the behaviour of the nasalin such clusters, we shall present and discuss the solution put forwardin Scheer (2003), who contrary to the previous accounts ascribes anactive role to nasals in partial geminate clusters. The solution to be discussedis based on the lenition theory, i.e. the Coda Mirror (Ségéral andScheer 1999) introduced in the previous chapter (section 4.3). The lenitiontheory, as will be shown in the following sections, allows us to proposea uniform solution to various apparently unrelated phenomena illustratedin this chapter.In all previous accounts of partial geminates it is always the obstruentwhich is the trigger of the place assimilation process. 16 An identical viewis advocated in Government Phonology, which is in fact a welcome resultof the governing relations postulated in the model. Note that in the lattertheory the nasal (in partial geminate clusters) appears in a rhymalcomplement and must be governed by the following obstruent onset. Insuch a relation the obstruent, being a governor, imposes the place of articulationon the preceding governee, that is, the nasal (16).(16) partial geminate clusters in GPRO|x|fN|x|Ix|N→O|x|gN|x|«In (16) the nasal [N] is governed by the following obstruent [g] throughthe inter-constituent government ‘ ’, hence it is the latter which is the→16Gussmann (2002:78) uses the neutral term ‘nasal place sharing’ to stress thefact that neither the nasal nor the obstruent is the dominating member of the cluster.