Re: XKCD/541 compliance, anyone?

[Artur Malabarba]

> I decided to try this out manually.  I put this into my buffer:
>
> \emph{Hello world! ;-)}
>
> changed the mode to LaTeX-mode (from AUCTeX), put the point at the ")"
> character, and did
>
> M-: (put-text-property (point) (1+ (point)) 'syntax-table '(1))
>
> After inspection by C-u C-x =, it turned out that nothing like a
> "syntax-table" property got its way into the buffer.
>
> Strangeness: if I change the name of the property to, e.g., my-prop,
> putting (and getting) the property value works as expected.
>

Try that again with font-lock-mode disabled.
Major modes can specify other text properties (besides 'face) for
font-lock-mode to set and reset. It's possible AucTex has font-lock-mode
resetting the' syntax-table property.