Why do phrases like "the car in Texas" break down into
(NP (Det the) (N car)
(PP (P in) (NP (N Texas))))
Why is the prepositional phrase "in Texas" constituted of the preposition "in" and a single-child noun phrase, instead of the preposition "in" and the child noun itself "Texas"?
(NP (Det the) (N car)
(PP (P in) (N Texas)))
What's the point of the seemingly-redundant noun phrase node in the syntax tree?
Why aren't phrase nodes with only one child reduced to that child directly?