Mind, Language, and Meaning in Science Fiction

If an AI system can convincingly mimic human-like language use without any genuine sentience or self-awareness, what does that say about the relationship between language and consciousness? Is language truly a window into the mind, or is it possible to produce language-like behavior without the underlying mental states we associate with it?
These are the same questions that science fiction authors have grappled with for decades, often by imagining radically different forms of intelligence and communication.