diff --git a/spacy/syntax/conll.pyx b/spacy/syntax/conll.pyx
index c4afeb02d..a30d1c0ff 100644
--- a/spacy/syntax/conll.pyx
+++ b/spacy/syntax/conll.pyx
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ def _parse_line(line):
 
 
 cdef class GoldParse:
-    def __init__(self, tokens, annot_tuples, brackets=(,)):
+    def __init__(self, tokens, annot_tuples, brackets=tuple()):
         self.mem = Pool()
         self.loss = 0
         self.length = len(tokens)