Let us consider a language where nouns are organized along some kind of hierarchical system. This system ultimately is an incomplete inverse system - the hierarchy exists, but no inverse marker serves to enable parsing things the opposite way around. The verb also has very little convergence with the noun classes. However, certain markers do cause measure words to appear. As a solution "Type-casting" a noun from one class to another appears.
Now classifiers become partially detached from their class - in certain contexts, they do appear with their class, but in other contexts, they appear to mark the function of the noun, analogously to the nouns normally of that class. So the more abstract measure words appear for words like 'in the manner of, as, like', the counter for very animate things also becomes a subject marker, the counter for inanimate things becomes an object marker, etc.
Thus, a system where particles both serve as class markers in certain contexts and function markers in other contexts.
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