This essay is a continuation of a series of earlier studies (Kubczak, 1978, 1991, and 2001) devoted to the semantic essence of metaphor and metonymy. The general characteristics of both figures are described and illustrated with German material. The similarity and contiguity processes underlying the metaphor and metonymy, respectively, are studied in more detail to determine how a semantic linkage is established through qualifying the features pertaining to two different entities. Different types of constitutive incompatibility emerging in the qualification process are identified, and their role in metonymic meaning production is explored. The functioning of 'tertium comparationis' in metaphors and the types of closed and open metaphor are discussed. The relationship of contiguity established by the speaker between the two entities involved in metonymy is analyzed, and a schematic representation of the metonymic meaning interpretation and understanding process is presented. Several metonymic reinterpretation modes are illustrated with German examples. A poem by Gottfried Benn is included to demonstrate the comprehension analysis of metaphors and metonymies. (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 2003, vol. 37, n. 5)