A Critical Metaphor Analysis on Malaysia’s Gazetted Metaphors amid the Movement Control Order: A COVID-19 Episode

The turbulent times of the Coronavirus crisis is a world-changing episode that keeps every single adult on the planet pondering not only on the silhouette of the new black but also on the mushrooming metaphors. As a linguistic representation emerging upon a shift in word or phrase usage at the unexpected context of occurrence, the metaphor thereby causes semantic tension. Nevertheless, the gazetted metaphors in the mainstream English newspapers amid the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia is distinctive. Implementing the Pragglejaz’s Metaphor Identification Procedure, this study attempts to highlight and reveal its figurative meaning. In order to yield a comprehensive elucida- tion of these conceptual expressions; the analytical framework of this study constitutes a combination of the linguistic, cognitive, and pragmatic standards to rationalize these metaphors. The data of this study is analysed via a three-stepped Critical Metaphor Analysis that comprises metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation, and metaphor explanation.