Final answer:
Three heuristics used to determine which words go with which phrase structures are understanding syntax, identifying parts of speech, and using contextual clues along with semantic meaning. Our natural ability to understand grammar through these heuristics helps us intuitively construct coherent sentences without consciously thinking about the rules.
Step-by-step explanation:
Heuristics are strategies used to facilitate problem-solving or learning, which can help us determine how words fit into phrase structures. Three common heuristics in arranging words into sentence structures are:
- Syntax knowledge: Our understanding of syntax, which is the set of principles that dictate the sequence and function of words in a sentence, helps us to intuitively form correct sentences. For instance, 'How did that happen?' is the only arrangement that makes sense because our syntactic knowledge recognizes the standard Subject-Verb-Object pattern.
- Part of speech identification: This involves recognizing words as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, which helps in sorting them into their respective places within a sentence. We often instinctively do this without needing to consciously think about the rules, such as in the provided example, where 'How' is an adverb, 'did' is an auxiliary verb, 'that' is a demonstrative pronoun, and 'happen' is the main verb.
- Contextual clues and semantic meaning: Context helps us to understand which words group together to form meaningful phrases. Certain words or phrases are commonly used together (collocations), and our exposure to the language aids us in arranging words into phrases that make sense. Words can also be sorted into categories based on pronunciation characteristics, such as the presence of sounds like [d] or [s], as mentioned in the original question prompts.
Additionally, the Pro Tip #2: The Yoda Trick suggests reordering words that seem out of order, to make sense of them, which is another form of syntax-based heuristic for phrase structure determination.