החיוך והצחוק כאסטרטגיה להבעת נימוס בשיח העברי

The present study discusses some of the roles of smiling and laughter in spoken Hebrew discourse, focusing on their occurrences in contexts such as saying things that do not reconcile with social values, proposing a correction, criticizing, and describing unpleasant situations. I suggest that in these contexts, smiling and laughter serve as a means of mitigation and negation, and could be considered as a politeness strategy.Moreover, identifying this role in discourse makes it possible to reveal the values and forms of behavior accepted in Israeli society, since in many cases the image of the speakers is threatened when this politeness can be associated with a value that deviates from the norm.