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by eindiran 2277 days ago
Linguists call "I think" when used this way a "stance marker"[0]. It's definitely not redundant: it reveals pragmatic information[1] about the context you're speaking in, namely by tempering your stance and revealing your level of confidence in the statement you're making.

See this for example: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SC59wwEkK64tvQsDb9hC/full

[0] Here, "stance" means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stance_(linguistics)

[1] For more info, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics