John David Burnley

Background

John David Burnley was born on the 22nd of October, 1941 in Wakefield, United Kingdom but spent his formative years in Alnwick.

Education

John David Burnley attended the Duke's School (now The Duke's County Middle School) in Alnwick. Later, he enrolled at the University of Durham, where he studied English and subsequently gained a Master of Arts degree with a thesis on a comparison of five Middle English romances and their French sources. While at Durham, he had the good fortune to study under Professor G.V. Smithers, one of the last Germanic-style philologists, who instilled in him the need for meticulous analysis of sources, careful study of complete linguistic profiles and scrupulous attention to detail. He remained at Durham where he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1973, which was devoted to a study of the vocabulary of Chaucer. This thesis confirmed his interest in late Middle English, the study of vocabulary and semantics, and his involvement in the nature of courtly love literature and the terminology which is generated.

Career

David Burnley began his career in 1969 as a lecturer in English at Lancaster University. In 1973 David Burnley arrived at Sheffield University as a lecturer in the Department of English Language and Medieval Literature. There Burnley taught a broad spectrum of courses, including Old English poetry, Middle English alliterative verse, the history of the language, Old French literature, Modern English grammar, lexis and semantics, and phonetics and syntax.

Promotion came with a Senior Lectureship in 1983. From 1990 to 1993, he served as a reader. In 1993, he accepted the position of professor. From 2000 and until his death he worked there as a research professor. Burnley was also involved in the administrative side of Sheffield University, serving as Dean of the Faculty of Arts, 1995-97, as well as Head of the Department of English Language and Linguistics 1996-2000. He was instrumental in setting up the new School of English in 1998, of which he became the first chairman.

Burnley was frequently invited to speak at international conferences on English language, medieval literature and modern linguistics. In 1993, he undertook a lecture tour of Japanese universities, consolidating the links that the department at Sheffield enjoys with distinguished Japanese academics.

During his career David published numerous books and articles. Burnley's area of special expertise, however, became the language and literature of Geoffrey Chaucer. He authored Chaucer's Language and the Philosophers' Tradition (1979), A Guide to Chaucer's Language (1983), and The History of the English Language (1992). His last book, Courtliness and Literature in Medieval England, was published in 1998.

Achievements

• John David Burnley is particularly known as a scholar of the English language and a Chaucer expert. He went on to play a crucial role in Sheffield University department's overall aim of retaining a disciplined philological approach to the history of the English language, while simultaneously expanding the study of modern varieties of the language using the modern linguistic method.
  
  Within the department, David organized a dedicated computer room for students, and his own research became increasingly influenced by computers. He produced The Sheffield Chaucer Textbase, a corpus of machine-readable Middle English Texts which is accessible to researchers all over the world.
  
  Burnley's self-acquired skills in programming also led to him creating a CD-Rom, entitled Old English: a multimedia history (2000), which is published by the British Library. It covers the language and culture of England from the coming of the English until the Norman Conquest, incorporating interactive images of manuscripts, architecture, and jewelry. His latest research project was to produce a computer version of the Auchinleck manuscript, a collection of Middle English romances and other texts. John David’s The History of the English Language: a sourcebook remains a standard text for universities throughout the world.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • Chaucer's Language and the Philosophers Tradition

    (This book is designed to explore the various kinds of ass...)

    1979
  • A Guide to Chaucer's Language 1983
  • The Language of Chaucer 1989
  • The History of the English Language 1992
  • The Language of Middle English Literature 1994
  • Courtliness and Literature in Medieval England 1998

Interests

• Gardening

Connections

David was married to Helen. The marriage produced one son, Richard, and one daughter, Emma.

Wife:

Helen Burnley

Son:

Richard Burnley

Daughter:

Emma Burnley