diff --git a/spacy/lang/en/__init__.py b/spacy/lang/en/__init__.py
index 63fd9c2b4..a95e501e1 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/en/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/en/__init__.py
@@ -16,11 +16,13 @@ from ...language import Language
 from ...attrs import LANG, NORM
 from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups
 
+def _return_en(_):
+    return 'en'
 
 class EnglishDefaults(Language.Defaults):
     lex_attr_getters = dict(Language.Defaults.lex_attr_getters)
     lex_attr_getters.update(LEX_ATTRS)
-    lex_attr_getters[LANG] = lambda text: 'en'
+    lex_attr_getters[LANG] = _return_en
     lex_attr_getters[NORM] = add_lookups(Language.Defaults.lex_attr_getters[NORM],
                                          BASE_NORMS, NORM_EXCEPTIONS)
     tokenizer_exceptions = update_exc(BASE_EXCEPTIONS, TOKENIZER_EXCEPTIONS)