The information and communication sciences (ICS) have a paradoxical relationship with semiotics. Both a logical and undoubtedly necessary tool, semiotics, as it is currently used in France, is at odds with the issues and epistemology of ICS. This article explores the aporetic dimension of current interactions between CIS and a certain kind of semiotics, and concludes that CIS needs to be refocused on a communicative approach based on the communicative subject, from a resolutely pragmatic perspective.