"growth" and the use of the article

[Gromit]

In my dictionary it says that the word "growth" is uncountable in most contexts but in some contexts "growth" takes the indefinite or definite article.

Examples
no article: "a disappointing year of little growth in Britain and America. (an increase in economic activity)

article: a substantial growth in the number of low-paid jobs (an increase in the number, size, or importance of sth)

I find this confusing. Does "growth" take an article when I want to use it as a synonym for "increase" when describing a line graph? In textbooks I came across both possibilities.

"Since then, we have seen steady growth..."
"There was a particularly strong growth in the sale and use of mobile phones."

Do I only use an article if "growth" is followed by a preposition such as "in" or "of"?

Thank you for your help.

[Mister Micawber]

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I'm afraid that there is no clear rule, Gromit. The phenomenon of such uncountable nouns becoming countable is called secondary recategorization. Basically, this means that when modified to indicate variety, measure, embodiment, quality-- that is, limiting the noun in some manner-- a non-count can be used as a count noun.

Almost all of your examples could well have appeared in the alternative form, almost at the whim of the writer:

[There has been] a substantial growth in the number of low-paid jobs
[There has been] substantial growth in the number of low-paid jobs

Since then, we have seen steady growth
Since then, we have seen a steady growth

There was a particularly strong growth
There was particularly strong growth

Your first example is a little different:

a disappointing year of little growth-- here little (meaning not much) is a word used solely to modifying mass nouns and does not limit the noun in a way to allow secondary recategorization.
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_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Alan]

Hi Gromit,

I don't think you need to worry too much about how and when you use articles or don't use articles with nouns that can be both countable and uncountable. The important thing is to concentrate on the real meaning of the word when it is used in both situations. 'Growth' as an uncountable noun is a process of getting bigger. 'Growth' as a countable noun refers to an individual 'growing' process that you can measure as a finite object and in that respect can attract 'a' or 'the' according to whether it is specific or not. You can of course apply this to thousands of words in the language. While I have been writing this, I have thought of an example in the word 'life'. We can say: In a dangerous situation it is a normal response to want to cling to life, with no article or again: Coal mine workers in the 19th century led a very short life, with an article because we are talking about a particular and individual life.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A funny thing happened...

[Lost_Soul]

Hi, MM and Alan

I learned about the termin "secondary recategorization" from my English grammar book
The book explains this phenomenon as mere splitting the word into several cathegories thus letting it assume a countable meaning.
They also quote several examples roughly as follows:

[Mister Micawber]

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I wouldn't, though you may find the odd example in the literature.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's