Not Minds, but Signs: Reframing LLMs through Semiotics

TL;DR

This paper proposes a semiotic perspective on LLMs, viewing them as sign manipulators rather than cognitive agents, to better understand their role in cultural and interpretive processes.

Contribution

It introduces a semiotic framework for analyzing LLMs, shifting focus from cognition to sign manipulation and cultural participation.

Findings

LLMs function as semiotic agents involved in sign circulation.

The semiotic approach avoids anthropomorphism and emphasizes social embeddedness.

Applications include literature, philosophy, education, and cultural production.

Abstract

This paper challenges the prevailing tendency to frame Large Language Models (LLMs) as cognitive systems, arguing instead for a semiotic perspective that situates these models within the broader dynamics of sign manipulation and meaning-making. Rather than assuming that LLMs understand language or simulate human thought, we propose that their primary function is to recombine, recontextualize, and circulate linguistic forms based on probabilistic associations. By shifting from a cognitivist to a semiotic framework, we avoid anthropomorphism and gain a more precise understanding of how LLMs participate in cultural processes, not by thinking, but by generating texts that invite interpretation. Through theoretical analysis and practical examples, the paper demonstrates how LLMs function as semiotic agents whose outputs can be treated as interpretive acts, open to contextual negotiation and critical reflection. We explore applications in literature, philosophy, education, and cultural production, emphasizing how LLMs can serve as tools for creativity, dialogue, and critical inquiry. The semiotic paradigm foregrounds the situated, contingent, and socially embedded nature of meaning, offering a more rigorous and ethically aware framework for studying and using LLMs. Ultimately, this approach reframes LLMs as technological participants in an ongoing ecology of signs. They do not possess minds, but they alter how we read, write, and make meaning, compelling us to reconsider the foundations of language, interpretation, and the role of artificial systems in the production of knowledge.