 It is from this type of structure that count @-@ classifiers may have arisen , originally replacing the second noun ( in structures where there was a noun rather than a mass @-@ classifier ) to yield Noun – Number – Classifier . That is to say , constructions like " horses five horses " may have been replaced by ones like " horses five CL " , possibly for stylistic reasons such as avoiding repetition . Another reason for the appearance of count @-@ classifiers may have been to avoid confusion or ambiguity that could have arisen from counting items using only mass @-@ classifiers — i.e. to clarify when one is referring to a single item and when one is referring to a measure of items . 
