diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index 6432f3e98..4f1e59433 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -597,6 +597,8 @@ class Language(object):
     ):
         if scorer is None:
             scorer = Scorer()
+        if component_cfg is None:
+            component_cfg = {}
         docs, golds = zip(*docs_golds)
         docs = list(docs)
         golds = list(golds)