[lispm]

> Lisps surrender the issue of syntax completely to the interpreter/compiler

It doesn't. It just works differently and looks different because Lisp syntax is defined on top of s-expressions. Lisp syntax is provided by built-in syntax for function calls, a bunch of special operators (let, progn, block, catch, quote, function, flet, if, ...) and a zillion macros. Each macro provides syntax - from primitive examples to complex syntax (the LOOP syntax is an example). The syntax is user-extensible by defining macros.

The level of s-expressions is a syntax for data. This syntax can be changed by readtables and readermacros.