Radicals serve as the central elements in the semantics of Chinese characters, but what foundational and extended meanings do they convey? This paper examines all characters with the radical ‘目’ related to attributes, as recorded in Shuowen Jiezi and The Standard Dictionary of Chinese Characters. In Shuowen Jiezi, the ‘目’ radical encompasses four conceptual categories—physical attributes, scale, color, and value. Specific elements under these categories include physical attributes such as ‘dimness, disease, clarity, order, and dryness,’ scale including ‘size, depth, height, thickness, density,’ value comprising ‘beauty and gentleness,’ and color represented by ‘white.’ Over time, these categories have been substantially reduced, with only physical attributes, limited to ‘dimness’ and ‘disease,’ being retained in later literature. This reduction highlights that ancient Chinese vocabulary contained a broader range of conceptual and semantic elements than modern vocabulary. Additionally, synonyms associated with the attribute concept of ‘目’ have mostly disappeared, while newly introduced vocabulary shows a shift towards polysemy, indicating an evolution in lexical structure. Extended meanings have followed mechanisms such as the expansion from attribute to action, metaphorical extensions, and grammaticalization. Semantic expansion frequently shifted to perceptual verbs, while metaphorical extensions moved from ‘human to object’ and ‘action to time.’ Grammaticalization trends were also observed, extending meanings to adverbial and modal uses. These findings reveal that ancient and modern uses of the ‘目’ radical differ significantly in both meaning and conceptual application.

1. 引言
2. 理論背景
    2.1 “屬性”概念
    2.2 部首 “目”字的相關研究回顧 
3. “目”部首漢字的基本屬性義特徵
    3.1 消亡
    3.2 繼承
    3.3 新生
    3.4 對基本屬性義新舊差異的解釋
4. “目”部首漢字的引申屬性義特徵
    4.1 向知覺動詞的發展
    4.2 隱喻性擴展
    4.3 語法化
5. 結語

• 曺銀晶(中央大學教養學院副教授) | Eun-jeong CHO