[skydhash]

Most languages' abstract machines expose a very simple API, it's up to the language to add useful constructs to help us write code more efficiently. Languages like Lisp start with a very simple syntax, then add those constructs with the language itself (even though those can be fixed using a standard), others just add it through the syntax. These constructs plus the abstract machine's operations form the semantics, syntax is however the language designer decided to present them.