Meaning through Relations: Lévi-Strauss and Large Language Models

Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralism offers a useful perspective on large language models (LLMs) through its emphasis on relationships within systems of meaning. This paper recalls relational meaning, oppositions and mediation, transformations, and bricolage, illustrating these ideas through Lévi-Strauss’s analysis of myth and an everyday example of gift-giving. It then examines their connections with contextual representations and generative processes in LLMs. These connections support a productive comparison, although similarities do not establish that language models implement or validate structuralist theory. Practical implications include assessing whether models preserve relevant relationships across reformulations, examining the cultural categories expressed in their responses, and distinguishing coherent explanations from empirically justified claims. Structuralism can inform the interpretation and evaluation of LLM behaviour, while LLMs offer opportunities to investigate how relationships are learned, represented and transformed. The comparison therefore provides a basis for exploring meaning and creativity, with attention to the differences between linguistic competence, cultural understanding and knowledge of the world.