There are five crucial concepts in syntax: category, left-to-right ordering, constituent structure, transformation, and constraints on transformations.
Categories – words are organized into categories also called parts of speech
Left-to-right ordering- words in phrases must be in a particular order
Hierarchical structure – words in sentences are arranged in a left-to-right order and a hierarchical structure.
Transformations - operations that move one part of speech from one location to another within a phrase or sentence.
Constraints on Movements – constraints are not part of a particular rule, but a restriction on what transformations in general can do.