That might depend on how much semantics is related to having a body. We do utilize quite a lot of metaphors that are based on the kinds of bodies and senses we have. The question here is how much embodiment is necessary for understanding semantics. Maybe it's possible to brute force around that with ML, or stack enough human hours into building the right ontologies in symbolic AI. But maybe not.

I think people like Rodney Brooks are of the belief you need to start with robots that learn their environment and build up from there.