Vowel quantity and syllabification in English

Based on the distribution of vowel qualities in medial and final syllables, I argue that there is phonological gemination in English. The analysis is cast in terms of optimality theory and has important implications in several domains: first, ambisyllabicity is not the right way to capture aspiration and flapping; second, languages where stress is dependent on vowel quality are perhaps best treated in terms of the kind of covert gemination proposed here.