From Pope Francis'speeches to the production and circulation of small phrases: the construction of the heterodox Pope

Abstract The recent development of a media configuration totally new, which it is directly associated with the printed media, radio, television and the Internet, has significantly increased the posting and circulation of small sentences. In trying to understand the linguistic and discursive functioning of this phenomenon, we analyzed a set of statements taken from the Pope Francis' speeches and detached in the media. The goal is to check the extent to which, the enunciator's hermeneutic work interfere in the interpretation of the quoted text, providing the reader a kind of interpretive route. Thereunto, an analysis was carried out based on Discourse Analysis, more specifically the works by Dominique Maingueneau (2006; 2010; 2014). The analysis performed allows to say that the posted statements potentiate the (re)production and circulation of simulations about the Pope's speech. There is, therefore, the construction of the image of an heterodox Pope.