Cooperative responses of a voice assistant and a psychologist: adherence to the principles of Herbert Paul Grice and Geoffrey Leech
This study examines the pragmatic features of interaction with the voice assistant "Alisa" in the context of intimate-personal communication, in comparison with written Internet communication on psychological forums. As criteria for a comparative analysis of the degree of success in human interaction with a voice assistant (VA) and a professional psychologist (PP) on a forum, the cooperative principle of H. P. Grice and the politeness principle of G. Leech were used. Based on H. P. Grice's maxims and the context-sensitive characteristics of speech corresponding to the communication situation, a communicative-pragmatic questionnaire was developed. The study compared the responses of the voice assistant "Alisa" and professional psychologists to 83 inquiries from psychological support forums. Consistency was verified using Kendall's coefficient (W = 0.52–0.78). Statistically significant differences were identified in four out of seven parameters, including the characteristics of quantity, manner, empathy, and validation (p < 0.05). The experimental results show that the VA gives longer responses to the user, and its responses have an explicit structure. The VA also demonstrates higher empathy and validation of feelings. These advantages are algorithmic and template-based in nature, and in oral interaction with the VA they turn into risks. A long monologue overloads a user in a state of distress, while a multi-clause and lengthy response limits feedback. No differences were found in terms of quality, relevance, and tact. Furthermore, an analysis of cases with matching assessments showed that the coincidence of median data does not mean that the VA and PP use similar communicative strategies. Recommendations are given to developers of voice assistants, and research prospects are outlined: expanding experimental procedures and the composition of participants.
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Islamov, R. S., Savelyeva, I. V. (2026). Cooperative responses of a voice assistant and a psychologist: adherence to the principles of Herbert Paul Grice and Geoffrey Leech, Research Result. Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, 12 (3), 145–169.
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