We are so used to making one thing stand for another that the process is transparent to us most of the time we do it. We talk about speaking 'literally' and 'metaphorically' as if every word we exchange wasn't a metaphor at bottom.
It's inevitable that our species would ask a question like 'What is the meaning of me'? Our survival has depended on considering everything around us and seeking meaning. What does it mean when the sky looks that way? When that smell comes from an object? When an animal makes that sound? It follows that we would look at our own existence as a crucial feature of our environment and ask the same question. We say 'If this means something else, as other things do... what is that?'
I think I see at least three uses of "meaning" here: a) one idea or thing as a placeholder for another (eg a drawing standing in for an animal), b) the consequences following from an observation (eg what will happen if the sky has a certain appearance) and c) some kind of assumption that every thing is a placeholder for something else.
Is that what you wanted to convey? Are all of these legitimate?