One analysis of particle metaphors locates the transfer in the relations among the attached meanings, while the particle retains its conventional relational role. Another conceives a general relational meaning and traces the metaphor to the relation itself.
The first approach considers a new yet analogous attachment; the second asks whether the type of relation is borrowed.
This is more than a terminological disagreement: it explains why the particle's metaphor is called dependent and where the initial figurative transfer is taken to occur.