In this paper I want to show why metaphor and metonymy are, on the one hand, two distinct types of generating new meanings for existing expressions, and why, on the other hand, there are many cases which can either be viewed as metaphor or as metonymy, without the one way of understanding excluding the other. After having given a general characterisation of metaphoric and metonymic concept formation as part of the general method of concept formation, I shall show how two different kinds of perspective change are involved in the metaphoric and in the metonymic process, respectively. Metaphors involve a crossing between perspectives that select similarities (identical features) and differences under each of the perspectives chosen; metonymies involve a crossing between perspectives directed towards contiguous parts of situations and objects. (Renate Bartsch)