This paper presents a novel method for simultaneously and automatically choosing the nonlinear structures of regressors or discriminant functions, as well as the number of terms to include in a rule-based regression model or pattern classifier. Variables are first partitioned into subsets each of which has a linguistic term (called a causal condition) associated with it; fuzzy sets are used to model the terms. Candidate interconnections (causal combinations) of either a term or its complement are formed, where the connecting word is AND which is modeled using the minimum operation. The data establishes which of the candidate causal combinations survive. A novel theoretical result leads to an exponential speedup in establishing this.