ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Combinatorial method (linguistics)

Okay kiddo, do you know what combinatorial means? It means to mix different things together to see what you can make.

In linguistics, combinatorial method is used to see how we can mix words together to make different sentences. Just like mixing different colors to make new colors, we can mix different words to make new sentences.

For example, let's say we have the words "dog" and "chase." We can use the combinatorial method to see how many different sentences we can make with these two words. We could say "The dog chased the cat," "The cat chased the dog," "The dog chased the ball," and so on.

By using the combinatorial method, we can see all the different ways we can mix and match words to create new meanings and express ourselves in different ways.