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What are the natural language formalisms that, roughly speaking, do away w/ syntax as a separate level of description? Cf. Steedman's "The Syntactic Process" (2000):

"...syntactic structure is merely the characterization of the process of constructing a logical form, rather than a representational level...",

i.e. at least his Combinatory Categorial Grammar qualifies. So the question is about exclusively semantics-driven formal theories of NL parsing

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    You can’t dispense with syntax, every NL theory needs it in some way. That said, you might want to look at Jerry Hobbs’ theory of (local) pragmatics, his approach to syntax is “anchored in semantics.”
    – Atamiri
    Commented Sep 16, 2018 at 10:43
  • @Atamiri Thanks, looked at it (the theory is ancient, and seemingly more one of semantics than a general take on NL). Many (most?) theories of semantics have an approach to syntax which is anchored in semantics, which isn't sufficient for what I asked: General theories of NL that minimize the role of syntax (ideally dispensing w/ it altogether). I think Seuren's Semantic Syntax might be another possible candidate. The crucial question (or test) would be whether syntax is a separate level a description or just a cover term for some (possibly diverse) interface phenomena or something else
    – jaam
    Commented Sep 16, 2018 at 18:26

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