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.

이 논문은 鬼와 畏를 字形․字音․字義세 방면으로 살펴본 후 두 글자가 同源관계에 있다고 주장한다. 字形을 보면 畏는 鬼가 卜이나 攴를 들고 있는 모형 이며, 字音을 보면 畏는 影母微部에 鬼는 見母微部에 속하여 서로 통하고, 字義를 보면 두려워하다는 의미를 지닌 畏는 鬼에서 분화되어 나온 글자이다. 본고는 이에서 한 걸음 더 나아가 鬼와 畏를 音符혹은 意符로 하는 글자들의 공통 의미인 ‘크다’, ‘기이하다’, ‘고르지 않다’ 등의 의미를 도출해낸 후 이러한 연 구 결과와 한자교육과의 접목 필요성에 대해 언급하고 있다.