These are capacities that are not only present in humans, but, as Herbert Simon unambiguously states, they are already present now in computers. And, I take it, computers are not externalist meaning-engines at all. The physical symbol system is an empirical hypothesis for Herbert Simon. But again this is not universally accepted. Syntax by itself is neither constitutive of nor sufficient for semantics.
Programs are neither constitutive nor sufficient for semantics.
At the limit of the process, of course, the context is the universe as a whole and we can not isolate anything as the meaning of a text. The idea is that we need not underplay or undermine the evocative power of a novel or of a poem by denying that the use of terms in it can be as commonplace as ever. Music seems to me to evoke meanings purely via its syntax, and we should try to develop a comprehension of what the contemplation of syntax brings about in terms of meanings attached to meaningless texts. The readers can, and most often will, find more meaning and different meanings from the intended ones. And one cannot but agree that much of the debates between different schools of criticisms appears to be an effect of the need of academia to produce new fashions and new ways to publish to enhance one's status within academia itself.