But it was a shrewdly symbolic move to transform the way these issues are debated politically.

"They gave 2,000 hands to New York for a few hours as a symbolic move," he said.

The national status is a largely symbolic move that comes with a plaque, a ceremony and no money.

American experts on South Africa said yesterday that the proposal was likely to be a symbolic move.

The largely symbolic move will have little tangible impact on the economy because banks can already borrow cash for next to nothing.

As very few slaves were literate, this was more a symbolic move than anything.

It was a subtle but symbolic move at the end of a rout.

Q Why not refuse to be part of those soft-money fund-raisers, just as a symbolic move, if nothing else?

The owners also made small but, in their view, symbolic moves on the tax rate and the payroll threshold.

Mr. Bush's symbolic move to the right helped him win the primary and, apparently, the nomination.