How do symbols acquire meaning instead of referring only to other symbols?
A stored symbol means little to a system if changing it changes nothing the system does. OPH begins with distinctions that matter through an observer's own channels: a retained temperature changes heating, or a record of uncertainty changes what gets checked next. Richer meanings combine perception, expectations, action and correction within an ongoing organization. A word for a cup is grounded through those relationships, rather than an endless chain of dictionary substitutions. This supplies an operational starting point for meaning. It does not make every useful bit a human concept or prove that every control system feels something. Experiential meaning additionally depends on OPH's proposed identity and its account of the experiencing unit.
See also Can manipulating symbols ever be understanding? (The Chinese room), Why does it feel like something to be a computation in a brain (qualia)?
Also in Chapter 39: Why Is a Bacterium Freer Than an Atom?, Chapter 40: Does It Feel Like Anything, and What Is Left to Decide?.
This answer comes from OPH, Observer Patch Holography. OPH is a rigorous, consistent and complete description of the unified, self-creating computational Universe we inhabit. Its consistency is machine-checked: the fixed point at its core is constructed explicitly, and a theory with a model contains no contradiction.
To understand OPH and check every step yourself, start with the free book Reverse Engineering Reality. It builds the theory from the ground up, and the OPH Notebook answers your questions while you read.
read the free bookask the notebookor ask sage:read chapter 3: Why Would a Universe Need Anybody In It?watch a universe make its own particles