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Sonorant conspiracy135(26) a. before an empty nucleus b. before a full vowelGvt. Gvt.C|CV«C®RV|PC|CV«C®RV|VLic. Lic.In (26a) we have the representation of the word-final syllabic consonant.The sonorant is followed by the empty nucleus which, as in German, isnot allowed to govern the preceding schwa. In consequence, the governmentstrikes the sonorant. Additionally, the sonorant lacks a licensor asEnglish final empty nuclei are not allowed to license. This simply meansthat the sonorant appears in a weak position and in order not to fall preyto lenition it spreads to the left and docks on to the nuclear position. In(26b), on the other hand, the sonorant appears in the intervocalic position,before an audible vowel. The solution we propose here is that nucleiin English, be they empty or full, are not allowed to govern lexicallypresent vowels. It means that the sonorant under (26b) is both governedand licensed. The latter context, like the former one, represents a weakposition, 19 and hence the sonorant becomes syllabic. Furthermore, thissolution predicts the position in which syllabic consonants arise morefrequently. Thus, in the intervocalic position they are optional, dependingon the tempo of speech; however, before a governed empty nucleusthe sonorant gets syllabic more readily. This fact falls out naturally fromthe lenition theory, i.e. the Coda Mirror, where the intervocalic positionis less ‘destructive’ than the position before a governed empty nucleus(see Ségéral and Scheer 1999).It has already been mentioned in the body of this chapter that thesonorant spreading ability contributes to the existence of heavy consonantclusters of up to even five consonants in a row, e.g. singleton [ ® sINg®lt ®n].This is possible since, as was mentioned in Chapter Two (section 3.5),the nucleus invaded by the following sonorant can dispense governmentjust like a regular vowel. It should be borne in mind, however, that neithersyllabic consonants nor regular vowels are able to govern lexicallypresent nuclei. To put it differently, they can govern only nuclei which arelexically empty (27).19Recall the discussion concerning the theory of lenition — The Coda Mirror inChapter Two (section 4.3).