I don't think...um ..to me ...just means ..the situation has not been thoroughly evaluated. It has been thought about but not in complete entirety
I thought that diagramming the sentence like I was taught in grammar school would help but I forgot how to do that. Sister Mary Immaculata would not be pleased.
After reading some of the comments in response to the OP on the website they were pretty challenging but I understood the OP right away.
I used the phrase frequently. The reason why is wanting to be polite. If I just give my opinion, then it seems as though I may be assuming I am right and those with a different opinion are wrong. I prefer to say 'I think' to let people know that I'm aware this is only my personal opinion and may not be correct at all. Unless I say..... I think I have crappy grammar skills. Then, I'm probably speaking for anyone who knows me.
To think is what living things with a brain do - with their brain. Non-living things have no brain, so they don't think. Robots are not living things, they don't have brain, so they don't think. Dear Von, suppose - and forgive me, you do some serious thinking and tell me in just less than a 100 words, what is the point you are making exactly about the phrase, don't think.
It's just a personal observation how the phrase is used, has been used and will continue to be used. I found that I am not the only one who has posed this observation to others on this link https://painintheenglish.com/case/286.
The phrase, "don't think," is perfectly all right with me, as long as people using it do get to effectively communicate among themselves.
Doesn't don't believe take thinking about what you don't believe? Maybe the phrase don't think is used to avoid confrontation. Saying I think you are wrong automatically puts a person on the defensive.
What an interesting subject! I don’t think that all the Native English Speakers in this forum will necessarily satisfy my curiosities, considering that English is complex. ^^That construction implies that the speaker concerns about a probability, or at least a possibility. It signifies that a denial is positively made to assert something. “Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.” ~ Noam Chomsky Take care everyone! xxx Emily, a Non Native English Speaker