Mary Begley

Postgraduate Research Student, University of Manchester

English Language and Linguistics

Current research:

My research is concerned with Middle English medical texts and language change in the semantic field of madness.
Taking as a starting point my transcriptions of Medieval medical recipe texts Rylands English MS 404 and Chetham’s MS Mun.A.3.127, my PhD focuses on the pragmatics of this text type. I will be looking at how madness language in medical recipe texts is situated in comparison to that in philosophical, legal and literary genres. In particular, I am interested in the relationship between linguistic representations of mental illness and Medieval cultural ideologies.

PhD Supervisors: David Denison and David Matthews

Research interests:

All areas of historical pragmatics, language change, discourse analysis and manuscript studies.

Qualifications:

MA English Language, University of Manchester, 2011 (Distinction)

BA English Language, University of Manchester, 2010 (First Class Honours)

MA Women’s Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2002

BA Women’s Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1997

Registered Mental Nurse, 1991

Registered General Nurse, 1988

Teaching:

In 2011, I was GTA for Introduction to Old English (LELA20091), and in 2012 I will be GTA for Introduction to Middle English Language (LELA 20052).

Voluntary work:

Since 2009, I have worked with CHICC at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, first cataloguing, and now transcribing Middle English manuscripts. My transcription of Rylands English MS 404 (medical recipes), which formed a part of my MA thesis, is now available online alongside the high quality digital images of the manuscript. I was also involved, along with Jasmine Sparrow, in transcribing Rylands English MS 7 (The Forme of Cury), which is now available as an ‘ebook Treasure’.

http://mmems.wordpress.com/