diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index f314682a..e417fdb3 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -53,6 +53,22 @@ would actually also make the following point gracefully handled (status of
 YYERRCODE, YYUNDEFTOK, etc.).  Possibly we could also define YYEMPTY (twice:
 as a token and as a symbol).  And YYEOF.
 
+It seems to work well.  Yet we have a weird case: the "error" token:
+
+enum yysymbol_type_t
+{
+  YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY = -2,
+  YYSYMBOL_YYEOF = 0,
+  YYSYMBOL_error = 1,
+  YYSYMBOL_YYUNDEF = 2,
+  YYSYMBOL_YYACCEPT = 61,
+  ...
+
+YYSYMBOL_error looks weird.  We should maybe rename this as
+"YYSYMBOL_YYERROR", even though it should not be confonded with the YYERROR
+macro.
+
+
 ** Consistency
 YYUNDEFTOK is an internal symbol number, as YYTERROR.
 But YYERRCODE is an external token number.
diff --git a/data/skeletons/bison.m4 b/data/skeletons/bison.m4
index ab4fb720..20de1b7e 100644
--- a/data/skeletons/bison.m4
+++ b/data/skeletons/bison.m4
@@ -411,6 +411,7 @@ m4_define([_b4_symbol],
 # if that would produce an invalid symbol.
 m4_define([b4_symbol_sid],
 [m4_case([$1],
+  [-2],                           [[YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY]],
   [0],                            [[YYSYMBOL_YYEOF]],
   [m4_bmatch(m4_quote(b4_symbol([$1], [tag])),
       [^\$accept$],               [[YYSYMBOL_YYACCEPT]],
diff --git a/data/skeletons/c.m4 b/data/skeletons/c.m4
index 721c66ea..d0aade36 100644
--- a/data/skeletons/c.m4
+++ b/data/skeletons/c.m4
@@ -504,12 +504,15 @@ m4_define([b4_symbol_enum],
 # b4_declare_symbol_enum
 # ----------------------
 # The definition of the symbol internal numbers as an enum.
+# Defining YYEMPTY here is important: it forces the compiler
+# to use a signed type, which matters for yytoken.
 m4_define([b4_declare_symbol_enum],
 [[/* Symbol type.  */
 enum yysymbol_type_t
 {
   ]m4_join([,
   ],
+           ]b4_symbol_sid([-2])[ = -2,
            b4_symbol_map([b4_symbol_enum]))[
 };
 typedef enum yysymbol_type_t yysymbol_type_t;
diff --git a/data/skeletons/yacc.c b/data/skeletons/yacc.c
index 348c1634..5c5a3964 100644
--- a/data/skeletons/yacc.c
+++ b/data/skeletons/yacc.c
@@ -1348,7 +1348,7 @@ yysyntax_error_arguments (const yyparse_context_t *yyctx,
        one exception: it will still contain any token that will not be
        accepted due to an error action in a later state.]])[
   */
-  if (yyctx->yytoken != YYEMPTY)
+  if (yyctx->yytoken != YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY)
     {
       int yyn;]b4_lac_if([[
       YYDPRINTF ((stderr, "Constructing syntax error message\n"));]])[
@@ -1576,7 +1576,7 @@ yyparse (]m4_ifset([b4_parse_param], [b4_formals(b4_parse_param)], [void])[)]])[
   /* The return value of yyparse.  */
   int yyresult;
   /* Lookahead token as an internal (translated) token number.  */
-  yysymbol_type_t yytoken = 0;
+  yysymbol_type_t yytoken = YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY;
   /* The variables used to return semantic value and location from the
      action routines.  */
   YYSTYPE yyval;]b4_locations_if([[
@@ -1889,7 +1889,7 @@ yyreduce:
 yyerrlab:
   /* Make sure we have latest lookahead translation.  See comments at
      user semantic actions for why this is necessary.  */
-  yytoken = yychar == YYEMPTY ? YYEMPTY : YYTRANSLATE (yychar);
+  yytoken = yychar == YYEMPTY ? YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY : YYTRANSLATE (yychar);
 
   /* If not already recovering from an error, report this error.  */
   if (!yyerrstatus)
diff --git a/src/parse-gram.y b/src/parse-gram.y
index 40f8a0c4..0523348e 100644
--- a/src/parse-gram.y
+++ b/src/parse-gram.y
@@ -808,7 +808,7 @@ yyreport_syntax_error (const yyparse_context_t *ctx)
   const char *argv[ARGS_MAX];
   int argc = 0;
   yysymbol_type_t unexpected = yyparse_context_token (ctx);
-  if (unexpected != YYEMPTY)
+  if (unexpected != YYSYMBOL_YYEMPTY)
     {
       argv[argc++] = yysymbol_name (unexpected);
       yysymbol_type_t expected[ARGS_MAX - 1];
diff --git a/tests/regression.at b/tests/regression.at
index cd79b507..fa059248 100644
--- a/tests/regression.at
+++ b/tests/regression.at
@@ -665,7 +665,7 @@ AT_BISON_CHECK([-v -o input.c input.y])
 [sed -n 's/  *$//;/^static const.*\[\] =/,/^}/p' input.c >tables.c]
 
 AT_CHECK([[cat tables.c]], 0,
-[[static const yytype_int8 yytranslate[] =
+[[static const yysymbol_type_t yytranslate[] =
 {
        0,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,
        2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,     2,