diff --git a/spacy/errors.py b/spacy/errors.py
index 23139e10a..99a0081c0 100644
--- a/spacy/errors.py
+++ b/spacy/errors.py
@@ -104,6 +104,8 @@ class Warnings(object):
             "string \"Field1=Value1,Value2|Field2=Value3\".")
 
     # TODO: fix numbering after merging develop into master
+    W097 = ("No Model config was provided to create the '{name}' component, "
+            "and no default configuration could be found either.")
     W098 = ("No Model config was provided to create the '{name}' component, "
             "so a default configuration was used.")
     W099 = ("Expected 'dict' type for the 'model' argument of pipe '{pipe}', "
diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index 5343df4b7..2dd7ce406 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -184,6 +184,7 @@ class Language(object):
         self.max_length = max_length
         self._optimizer = None
 
+        # TODO: de-uglify (incorporating into component decorator didn't work because of circular imports)
         from .ml.models.defaults import (
             default_tagger_config,
             default_parser_config,
@@ -349,6 +350,8 @@ class Language(object):
         if model_cfg is None and default_config is not None:
             warnings.warn(Warnings.W098.format(name=name))
             model_cfg = default_config["model"]
+        if model_cfg is None:
+            warnings.warn(Warnings.W097.format(name=name))
         model = None
         if model_cfg is not None:
             self.config[name] = {"model": model_cfg}