diff --git a/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx b/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx
index 8218240f0..1dcb92016 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/nn_parser.pyx
@@ -608,6 +608,8 @@ cdef class Parser:
 
     def begin_training(self, get_examples, pipeline=None, sgd=None, **kwargs):
         self.cfg.update(kwargs)
+        if len(self.vocab.lookups.get_table("lexeme_norm", {})) == 0:
+            warnings.warn(Warnings.W033.format(model="parser or NER"))
         if not hasattr(get_examples, '__call__'):
             gold_tuples = get_examples
             get_examples = lambda: gold_tuples