Here’s a list of tips my professor created for students in Intro to Linguistics. If you just started studying Syntax, this might be useful to you.
1. Label each word with its syntactic category.
2. Draw a line from all N’s to create NPs, as all nouns project immediately.
By “projecting,” I mean they produce a phrase above them with the same label as their category. So N = NP.
3. All unmodified adverbs project immediately
So Adv = AdvP. If an Adv is modified by another AdvP, you’ll have to do this twice.
4. AdvP’s which modify Adj’s are next
AdvP + Adj = AdjP. If you have an adjective that isn’t modified by an AdvP, it projects immediately, so Adj = AdjP.
5. With PP’s, you have to think about what they’re modifying
If it’s modifying an NP (as in “I saw the [[farmer] on the horse],” where the farmer is riding a horse), you should merge it with that NP, so NP + PP = NP. If it’s modifying a VP (as in “I [saw the farmer] [from my car], where you’re in the car but the farmer isn’t) you should first create a VP (“saw the farmer”) and then merge the PP with it (“from my car”) to create another, higher VP. So VP + PP= VP.
6. Determiners come last
First, build the NP (which might be modified by an AdjP or a PP), and then merge it with a D. So D + NP = NP.
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