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As a result of present-day technological standards, the technique of computer simulation is constantly gaining influence in cognitive science. Neurolinguistics is a special branch of this field in which cognitive capacities connected with language are related to the structure and functions of the brain. It is argued that computer simulation is a useful technique for evaluating neurolinguistic models. This is demonstrated with respect to neural network models of the process of language production.

C onnectionist modelling is a relatively new and valuable technique for the development of langua ge processing theories. M ost of langua ge production models thus far have been discussed with respect to the English langu age. In this study, we present an interactive activation model of noun production for a morpholog ically complex language, viz. Finnish. Our model follow s the psycholinguistic assumptions of the SAID model, an experimentally corrobora ted production model. The present model is a local connectionist model and it has been evaluated by computer simulation. It has been tested with respect to case and possessive su xes of nouns. Furthermore, to test the psycholinguistic plausibility of the model, simulations of the most robust phonolog ical frame constraint in speech errors, the initialness eOE ect, were perfor med. These simulations showed good correspondence to empirical error data. We argue that the present model provides a basis for further computational research in morpholog ically rich langu ages like Finnish.KEYW ORDS: Language production m odels, connectionist m odels, psycholinguistics, Finnish, gram m atical m orphology.

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