Wayan Arka's interests are in theoretical and typological aspects of
Austronesian languages of Indonesia. He has done detailed studies on
morpho-syntactic aspects of Balinese and Bahasa Indonesia, within the
framework of LFG (Lexical-Functional Grammar). He has recently begun to
extend his research, with preliminary studies on other languages in
western and eastern Indonesia such as Nias and Mentawai (Sumatra),
Manggarai, Rongga and Lamaholot (Flores), Dawan (West Timor), and Kei (South-east of Maluku)
focussing on morphosyntactic aspects of core arguments, (pronominal)
marking and voice/argument alternations. His Rongga Documentation Project was funded by the Hans Rausing ELDP (2004-2006). He is still working on his Rongga materials, and is also currently doing collaborative research on
voice in the Austronesian languages of eastern Indonesia (funded by an NSF grant, 2006-2009), and Indonesian Parallel Grammar Project (funded by a near-miss grant from Sydney University (2007) and an ARC Discovery grant (2008-2011).
Wayan's serious linguistic training began when he moved
to Sydney in 1992 taking an MPhil, with his research on the Indonesian
causative -kan. He continued his PhD at the same University, finishing it
in 1998, with research on Balinese morphosyntax and pragmatics. During the
course of his PhD, he was a visiting scholar at CSLI, Stanford University
(1995). He was back at Udayana University in Bali-Indonesia for three
years before he moved again to Australia (April 2001) to take a
fellowship at the RSPAS, ANU.