How to test for a syntax condition without moving the cursor? - emacs

Question

I have been unable to come up with a method to test for a syntax condition without moving the cursor -- e.g., skip-syntax-forward and skip-chars-forward both move the cursor in order to return t or a positive value. How can I return t or nil without moving the cursor?
(defun lawlist-kill-word ()
"Mark word / symbol + whitespace to the right of the cursor, and kill same."
(interactive)
(let* (
(symbol-regexp "\\s.\\|\\s_")
(word-regexp "\\sw"))
(modify-syntax-entry ?' "_") ;; apostrophe = symbol constituent
(cond
((< 0 (skip-syntax-forward "_."))
(let ((end (point)))
(set-mark end)
(while (looking-back symbol-regexp)
(backward-char))
(let ((beg (point)))
(delete-region beg end)
(setq beg (point))
(cond
((skip-chars-forward " \t")
(setq end (point))
(set-mark end)
(delete-region beg end))))))
((< 0 (skip-syntax-forward "w"))
(let ((end (point)))
(set-mark end)
(while (looking-back word-regexp)
(backward-char))
(let ((beg (point)))
(delete-region beg end)
(setq beg (point))
(cond
((skip-chars-forward " \t")
(setq end (point))
(set-mark end)
(delete-region beg end))))))
(t
(let ((beg (point)))
(set-mark beg)
(skip-chars-forward " \t")
(let ((end (point)))
(delete-region beg end)))
(deactivate-mark)))
(modify-syntax-entry ?' "w") )) ;; apostrophe = word constituent
EDIT:  lawlist-kill-word is a work in progress -- any updates to this function will be posted to a thread related to that issue -- i.e.,: Emacs: delete whitespaces or a word

Answer 1

As #Tobias said: wrap cursor movements in save-excursion. Save any values you want (e.g., of (point)) in variables and return them as needed.
E.g., if you want the position four lines ahead, do something like this:
(let ((posn (save-excursion (forward-line 4) (point))))
posn)