diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 957112e92..e3ce53024 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -13,7 +13,6 @@ install:
   - "pip install -e ."
 script:
   - "cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep flags | head -n 1"
-  - "pip install pytest pytest-timeout"
   - "python -m pytest --tb=native spacy"
 branches:
   except:
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index ebe660b97..601b73559 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ pathlib==1.0.1; python_version < "3.4"
 jsonschema>=2.6.0,<3.1.0
 # Development dependencies
 cython>=0.25
-pytest>=4.0.0,<4.1.0
+pytest>=4.6.5
 pytest-timeout>=1.3.0,<2.0.0
 mock>=2.0.0,<3.0.0
 flake8>=3.5.0,<3.6.0
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index d188f123e..4d0a88c35 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -96,3 +96,7 @@ exclude =
     __pycache__,
     _tokenizer_exceptions_list.py,
     spacy/__init__.py
+
+[tool:pytest]
+markers =
+    slow
diff --git a/spacy/errors.py b/spacy/errors.py
index 93d42aa4c..2ef5d1ce4 100644
--- a/spacy/errors.py
+++ b/spacy/errors.py
@@ -487,6 +487,12 @@ class Errors(object):
     E170 = ("Cannot apply transition {name}: invalid for the current state.")
     E171 = ("Matcher.add received invalid on_match callback argument: expected "
             "callable or None, but got: {arg_type}")
+    E172 = ("The Lemmatizer.load classmethod is deprecated. To create a "
+            "Lemmatizer, initialize the class directly. See the docs for "
+            "details: https://spacy.io/api/lemmatizer")
+    E173 = ("As of v2.2, the Lemmatizer is initialized with an instance of "
+            "Lookups containing the lemmatization tables. See the docs for "
+            "details: https://spacy.io/api/lemmatizer#init")
 
 
 @add_codes
diff --git a/spacy/lang/el/__init__.py b/spacy/lang/el/__init__.py
index 5312e7474..16863e6d7 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/el/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/el/__init__.py
@@ -13,8 +13,9 @@ from ..tokenizer_exceptions import BASE_EXCEPTIONS
 from .norm_exceptions import NORM_EXCEPTIONS
 from ..norm_exceptions import BASE_NORMS
 from ...language import Language
+from ...lookups import Lookups
 from ...attrs import LANG, NORM
-from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups, get_lemma_tables
+from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups
 
 
 class GreekDefaults(Language.Defaults):
@@ -34,8 +35,9 @@ class GreekDefaults(Language.Defaults):
 
     @classmethod
     def create_lemmatizer(cls, nlp=None, lookups=None):
-        lemma_rules, lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_lookup = get_lemma_tables(lookups)
-        return GreekLemmatizer(lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_rules, lemma_lookup)
+        if lookups is None:
+            lookups = Lookups()
+        return GreekLemmatizer(lookups)
 
 
 class Greek(Language):
diff --git a/spacy/lang/el/lemmatizer.py b/spacy/lang/el/lemmatizer.py
index 647ea9c33..6f5b3999b 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/el/lemmatizer.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/el/lemmatizer.py
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 # coding: utf8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
-from ...symbols import NOUN, VERB, ADJ, PUNCT
+from ...lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
 
 
-class GreekLemmatizer(object):
+class GreekLemmatizer(Lemmatizer):
     """
     Greek language lemmatizer applies the default rule based lemmatization
     procedure with some modifications for better Greek language support.
@@ -15,64 +15,26 @@ class GreekLemmatizer(object):
     not applicable for Greek language.
     """
 
-    @classmethod
-    def load(cls, path, index=None, exc=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        return cls(index, exc, rules, lookup)
-
-    def __init__(self, index=None, exceptions=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        self.index = index
-        self.exc = exceptions
-        self.rules = rules
-        self.lookup_table = lookup if lookup is not None else {}
-
-    def __call__(self, string, univ_pos, morphology=None):
-        if not self.rules:
-            return [self.lookup_table.get(string, string)]
-        if univ_pos in (NOUN, "NOUN", "noun"):
-            univ_pos = "noun"
-        elif univ_pos in (VERB, "VERB", "verb"):
-            univ_pos = "verb"
-        elif univ_pos in (ADJ, "ADJ", "adj"):
-            univ_pos = "adj"
-        elif univ_pos in (PUNCT, "PUNCT", "punct"):
-            univ_pos = "punct"
-        else:
-            return list(set([string.lower()]))
-        lemmas = lemmatize(
-            string,
-            self.index.get(univ_pos, {}),
-            self.exc.get(univ_pos, {}),
-            self.rules.get(univ_pos, []),
-        )
-        return lemmas
-
-    def lookup(self, string, orth=None):
-        key = orth if orth is not None else string
-        if key in self.lookup_table:
-            return self.lookup_table[key]
-        return string
-
-
-def lemmatize(string, index, exceptions, rules):
-    string = string.lower()
-    forms = []
-    if string in index:
-        forms.append(string)
-        return forms
-    forms.extend(exceptions.get(string, []))
-    oov_forms = []
-    if not forms:
-        for old, new in rules:
-            if string.endswith(old):
-                form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
-                if not form:
-                    pass
-                elif form in index or not form.isalpha():
-                    forms.append(form)
-                else:
-                    oov_forms.append(form)
-    if not forms:
-        forms.extend(oov_forms)
-    if not forms:
-        forms.append(string)
-    return list(set(forms))
+    def lemmatize(self, string, index, exceptions, rules):
+        string = string.lower()
+        forms = []
+        if string in index:
+            forms.append(string)
+            return forms
+        forms.extend(exceptions.get(string, []))
+        oov_forms = []
+        if not forms:
+            for old, new in rules:
+                if string.endswith(old):
+                    form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
+                    if not form:
+                        pass
+                    elif form in index or not form.isalpha():
+                        forms.append(form)
+                    else:
+                        oov_forms.append(form)
+        if not forms:
+            forms.extend(oov_forms)
+        if not forms:
+            forms.append(string)
+        return list(set(forms))
diff --git a/spacy/lang/fr/__init__.py b/spacy/lang/fr/__init__.py
index c9dd623fc..f56c8688a 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/fr/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/fr/__init__.py
@@ -12,8 +12,9 @@ from .syntax_iterators import SYNTAX_ITERATORS
 from ..tokenizer_exceptions import BASE_EXCEPTIONS
 from ..norm_exceptions import BASE_NORMS
 from ...language import Language
+from ...lookups import Lookups
 from ...attrs import LANG, NORM
-from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups, get_lemma_tables
+from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups
 
 
 class FrenchDefaults(Language.Defaults):
@@ -33,8 +34,9 @@ class FrenchDefaults(Language.Defaults):
 
     @classmethod
     def create_lemmatizer(cls, nlp=None, lookups=None):
-        lemma_rules, lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_lookup = get_lemma_tables(lookups)
-        return FrenchLemmatizer(lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_rules, lemma_lookup)
+        if lookups is None:
+            lookups = Lookups()
+        return FrenchLemmatizer(lookups)
 
 
 class French(Language):
diff --git a/spacy/lang/fr/lemmatizer.py b/spacy/lang/fr/lemmatizer.py
index d98d3cb5b..79f4dd28d 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/fr/lemmatizer.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/fr/lemmatizer.py
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 # coding: utf8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+from ...lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
 from ...symbols import POS, NOUN, VERB, ADJ, ADV, PRON, DET, AUX, PUNCT, ADP
 from ...symbols import SCONJ, CCONJ
 from ...symbols import VerbForm_inf, VerbForm_none, Number_sing, Degree_pos
 
 
-class FrenchLemmatizer(object):
+class FrenchLemmatizer(Lemmatizer):
     """
     French language lemmatizer applies the default rule based lemmatization
     procedure with some modifications for better French language support.
@@ -16,19 +17,10 @@ class FrenchLemmatizer(object):
     the lookup table.
     """
 
-    @classmethod
-    def load(cls, path, index=None, exc=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        return cls(index, exc, rules, lookup)
-
-    def __init__(self, index=None, exceptions=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        self.index = index
-        self.exc = exceptions
-        self.rules = rules
-        self.lookup_table = lookup if lookup is not None else {}
-
     def __call__(self, string, univ_pos, morphology=None):
-        if not self.rules:
-            return [self.lookup_table.get(string, string)]
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
+        if "lemma_rules" not in self.lookups:
+            return [lookup_table.get(string, string)]
         if univ_pos in (NOUN, "NOUN", "noun"):
             univ_pos = "noun"
         elif univ_pos in (VERB, "VERB", "verb"):
@@ -56,12 +48,14 @@ class FrenchLemmatizer(object):
         # See Issue #435 for example of where this logic is requied.
         if self.is_base_form(univ_pos, morphology):
             return list(set([string.lower()]))
-        lemmas = lemmatize(
+        index_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_index", {})
+        exc_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_exc", {})
+        rules_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_rules", {})
+        lemmas = self.lemmatize(
             string,
-            self.index.get(univ_pos, {}),
-            self.exc.get(univ_pos, {}),
-            self.rules.get(univ_pos, []),
-            self.lookup_table,
+            index_table.get(univ_pos, {}),
+            exc_table.get(univ_pos, {}),
+            rules_table.get(univ_pos, []),
         )
         return lemmas
 
@@ -115,33 +109,34 @@ class FrenchLemmatizer(object):
         return self(string, "punct", morphology)
 
     def lookup(self, string, orth=None):
-        if orth is not None and orth in self.lookup_table:
-            return self.lookup_table[orth][0]
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
+        if orth is not None and orth in lookup_table:
+            return lookup_table[orth][0]
         return string
 
-
-def lemmatize(string, index, exceptions, rules, lookup):
-    string = string.lower()
-    forms = []
-    if string in index:
-        forms.append(string)
-        return forms
-    forms.extend(exceptions.get(string, []))
-    oov_forms = []
-    if not forms:
-        for old, new in rules:
-            if string.endswith(old):
-                form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
-                if not form:
-                    pass
-                elif form in index or not form.isalpha():
-                    forms.append(form)
-                else:
-                    oov_forms.append(form)
-    if not forms:
-        forms.extend(oov_forms)
-    if not forms and string in lookup.keys():
-        forms.append(lookup[string][0])
-    if not forms:
-        forms.append(string)
-    return list(set(forms))
+    def lemmatize(self, string, index, exceptions, rules):
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
+        string = string.lower()
+        forms = []
+        if string in index:
+            forms.append(string)
+            return forms
+        forms.extend(exceptions.get(string, []))
+        oov_forms = []
+        if not forms:
+            for old, new in rules:
+                if string.endswith(old):
+                    form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
+                    if not form:
+                        pass
+                    elif form in index or not form.isalpha():
+                        forms.append(form)
+                    else:
+                        oov_forms.append(form)
+        if not forms:
+            forms.extend(oov_forms)
+        if not forms and string in lookup_table.keys():
+            forms.append(lookup_table[string][0])
+        if not forms:
+            forms.append(string)
+        return list(set(forms))
diff --git a/spacy/lang/nl/__init__.py b/spacy/lang/nl/__init__.py
index f4037990b..074fd9133 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/nl/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/nl/__init__.py
@@ -10,8 +10,9 @@ from .lemmatizer import DutchLemmatizer
 from ..tokenizer_exceptions import BASE_EXCEPTIONS
 from ..norm_exceptions import BASE_NORMS
 from ...language import Language
+from ...lookups import Lookups
 from ...attrs import LANG, NORM
-from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups, get_lemma_tables
+from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups
 
 
 class DutchDefaults(Language.Defaults):
@@ -29,8 +30,9 @@ class DutchDefaults(Language.Defaults):
 
     @classmethod
     def create_lemmatizer(cls, nlp=None, lookups=None):
-        lemma_rules, lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_lookup = get_lemma_tables(lookups)
-        return DutchLemmatizer(lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_rules, lemma_lookup)
+        if lookups is None:
+            lookups = Lookups()
+        return DutchLemmatizer(lookups)
 
 
 class Dutch(Language):
diff --git a/spacy/lang/nl/lemmatizer.py b/spacy/lang/nl/lemmatizer.py
index 08ae0b1f7..9a92bee44 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/nl/lemmatizer.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/nl/lemmatizer.py
@@ -1,10 +1,11 @@
 # coding: utf8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 
+from ...lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
 from ...symbols import NOUN, VERB, ADJ, NUM, DET, PRON, ADP, AUX, ADV
 
 
-class DutchLemmatizer(object):
+class DutchLemmatizer(Lemmatizer):
     # Note: CGN does not distinguish AUX verbs, so we treat AUX as VERB.
     univ_pos_name_variants = {
         NOUN: "noun",
@@ -36,16 +37,6 @@ class DutchLemmatizer(object):
         "num": "num",
     }
 
-    @classmethod
-    def load(cls, path, index=None, exc=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        return cls(index, exc, rules, lookup)
-
-    def __init__(self, index=None, exceptions=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        self.index = index
-        self.exc = exceptions
-        self.rules = rules or {}
-        self.lookup_table = lookup if lookup is not None else {}
-
     def __call__(self, string, univ_pos, morphology=None):
         # Difference 1: self.rules is assumed to be non-None, so no
         # 'is None' check required.
@@ -62,11 +53,13 @@ class DutchLemmatizer(object):
             # are not lemmatized. They are lowercased, however.
             return [string]
             # if string in self.lemma_index.get(univ_pos)
-        lemma_index = self.index.get(univ_pos, {})
+        index_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_index", {})
+        lemma_index = index_table.get(univ_pos, {})
         # string is already lemma
         if string in lemma_index:
             return [string]
-        exceptions = self.exc.get(univ_pos, {})
+        exc_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_exc", {})
+        exceptions = exc_table.get(univ_pos, {})
         # string is irregular token contained in exceptions index.
         try:
             lemma = exceptions[string]
@@ -74,15 +67,14 @@ class DutchLemmatizer(object):
         except KeyError:
             pass
         # string corresponds to key in lookup table
-        lookup_table = self.lookup_table
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
         looked_up_lemma = lookup_table.get(string)
         if looked_up_lemma and looked_up_lemma in lemma_index:
             return [looked_up_lemma]
-
-        forms, is_known = lemmatize(
-            string, lemma_index, exceptions, self.rules.get(univ_pos, [])
+        rules_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_rules", {})
+        forms, is_known = self.lemmatize(
+            string, lemma_index, exceptions, rules_table.get(univ_pos, [])
         )
-
         # Back-off through remaining return value candidates.
         if forms:
             if is_known:
@@ -104,46 +96,25 @@ class DutchLemmatizer(object):
     # used to search the lookup table. This is necessary because our lookup
     # table consists entirely of lowercase keys.
     def lookup(self, string, orth=None):
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
         string = string.lower()
         if orth is not None:
-            return self.lookup_table.get(orth, string)
+            return lookup_table.get(orth, string)
         else:
-            return self.lookup_table.get(string, string)
+            return lookup_table.get(string, string)
 
-    def noun(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "noun", morphology)
-
-    def verb(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "verb", morphology)
-
-    def adj(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "adj", morphology)
-
-    def det(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "det", morphology)
-
-    def pron(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "pron", morphology)
-
-    def adp(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "adp", morphology)
-
-    def punct(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "punct", morphology)
-
-
-# Reimplemented to focus more on application of suffix rules and to return
-# as early as possible.
-def lemmatize(string, index, exceptions, rules):
-    # returns (forms, is_known: bool)
-    oov_forms = []
-    for old, new in rules:
-        if string.endswith(old):
-            form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
-            if not form:
-                pass
-            elif form in index:
-                return [form], True  # True = Is known (is lemma)
-            else:
-                oov_forms.append(form)
-    return list(set(oov_forms)), False
+    # Reimplemented to focus more on application of suffix rules and to return
+    # as early as possible.
+    def lemmatize(self, string, index, exceptions, rules):
+        # returns (forms, is_known: bool)
+        oov_forms = []
+        for old, new in rules:
+            if string.endswith(old):
+                form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
+                if not form:
+                    pass
+                elif form in index:
+                    return [form], True  # True = Is known (is lemma)
+                else:
+                    oov_forms.append(form)
+        return list(set(oov_forms)), False
diff --git a/spacy/lang/ru/__init__.py b/spacy/lang/ru/__init__.py
index 2699bad7e..f34fc5435 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/ru/__init__.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/ru/__init__.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from ..tokenizer_exceptions import BASE_EXCEPTIONS
 from ..norm_exceptions import BASE_NORMS
 from ...util import update_exc, add_lookups
 from ...language import Language
+from ...lookups import Lookups
 from ...attrs import LANG, NORM
 
 
@@ -27,8 +28,10 @@ class RussianDefaults(Language.Defaults):
     tag_map = TAG_MAP
 
     @classmethod
-    def create_lemmatizer(cls, nlp=None, **kwargs):
-        return RussianLemmatizer()
+    def create_lemmatizer(cls, nlp=None, lookups=None):
+        if lookups is None:
+            lookups = Lookups()
+        return RussianLemmatizer(lookups)
 
 
 class Russian(Language):
diff --git a/spacy/lang/ru/lemmatizer.py b/spacy/lang/ru/lemmatizer.py
index 70120566b..96d32f59c 100644
--- a/spacy/lang/ru/lemmatizer.py
+++ b/spacy/lang/ru/lemmatizer.py
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ from ...compat import unicode_
 class RussianLemmatizer(Lemmatizer):
     _morph = None
 
-    def __init__(self):
-        super(RussianLemmatizer, self).__init__()
+    def __init__(self, lookups=None):
+        super(RussianLemmatizer, self).__init__(lookups)
         try:
             from pymorphy2 import MorphAnalyzer
         except ImportError:
@@ -102,19 +102,6 @@ class RussianLemmatizer(Lemmatizer):
             return symbols_to_str[univ_pos]
         return None
 
-    def is_base_form(self, univ_pos, morphology=None):
-        # TODO
-        raise NotImplementedError
-
-    def det(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "det", morphology)
-
-    def num(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "num", morphology)
-
-    def pron(self, string, morphology=None):
-        return self(string, "pron", morphology)
-
     def lookup(self, string, orth=None):
         analyses = self._morph.parse(string)
         if len(analyses) == 1:
diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index f7d530ad4..88022a1f2 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -41,8 +41,7 @@ class BaseDefaults(object):
     def create_lemmatizer(cls, nlp=None, lookups=None):
         if lookups is None:
             lookups = cls.create_lookups(nlp=nlp)
-        rules, index, exc, lookup = util.get_lemma_tables(lookups)
-        return Lemmatizer(index, exc, rules, lookup)
+        return Lemmatizer(lookups=lookups)
 
     @classmethod
     def create_lookups(cls, nlp=None):
diff --git a/spacy/lemmatizer.py b/spacy/lemmatizer.py
index 26c2227a0..d70e4cfc4 100644
--- a/spacy/lemmatizer.py
+++ b/spacy/lemmatizer.py
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
 # coding: utf8
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 from collections import OrderedDict
 
 from .symbols import NOUN, VERB, ADJ, PUNCT, PROPN
+from .errors import Errors
+from .lookups import Lookups
 
 
 class Lemmatizer(object):
@@ -14,18 +17,32 @@ class Lemmatizer(object):
     """
 
     @classmethod
-    def load(cls, path, index=None, exc=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        return cls(index, exc, rules, lookup)
+    def load(cls, *args, **kwargs):
+        raise NotImplementedError(Errors.E172)
 
-    def __init__(self, index=None, exceptions=None, rules=None, lookup=None):
-        self.index = index
-        self.exc = exceptions
-        self.rules = rules
-        self.lookup_table = lookup if lookup is not None else {}
+    def __init__(self, lookups, *args, **kwargs):
+        """Initialize a Lemmatizer.
+
+        lookups (Lookups): The lookups object containing the (optional) tables
+            "lemma_rules", "lemma_index", "lemma_exc" and "lemma_lookup".
+        RETURNS (Lemmatizer): The newly constructed object.
+        """
+        if args or kwargs or not isinstance(lookups, Lookups):
+            raise ValueError(Errors.E173)
+        self.lookups = lookups
 
     def __call__(self, string, univ_pos, morphology=None):
-        if not self.rules:
-            return [self.lookup_table.get(string, string)]
+        """Lemmatize a string.
+
+        string (unicode): The string to lemmatize, e.g. the token text.
+        univ_pos (unicode / int): The token's universal part-of-speech tag.
+        morphology (dict): The token's morphological features following the
+            Universal Dependencies scheme.
+        RETURNS (list): The available lemmas for the string.
+        """
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
+        if "lemma_rules" not in self.lookups:
+            return [lookup_table.get(string, string)]
         if univ_pos in (NOUN, "NOUN", "noun"):
             univ_pos = "noun"
         elif univ_pos in (VERB, "VERB", "verb"):
@@ -41,11 +58,14 @@ class Lemmatizer(object):
         # See Issue #435 for example of where this logic is requied.
         if self.is_base_form(univ_pos, morphology):
             return [string.lower()]
-        lemmas = lemmatize(
+        index_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_index", {})
+        exc_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_exc", {})
+        rules_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_rules", {})
+        lemmas = self.lemmatize(
             string,
-            self.index.get(univ_pos, {}),
-            self.exc.get(univ_pos, {}),
-            self.rules.get(univ_pos, []),
+            index_table.get(univ_pos, {}),
+            exc_table.get(univ_pos, {}),
+            rules_table.get(univ_pos, []),
         )
         return lemmas
 
@@ -53,6 +73,10 @@ class Lemmatizer(object):
         """
         Check whether we're dealing with an uninflected paradigm, so we can
         avoid lemmatization entirely.
+
+        univ_pos (unicode / int): The token's universal part-of-speech tag.
+        morphology (dict): The token's morphological features following the
+            Universal Dependencies scheme.
         """
         if morphology is None:
             morphology = {}
@@ -90,6 +114,18 @@ class Lemmatizer(object):
     def adj(self, string, morphology=None):
         return self(string, "adj", morphology)
 
+    def det(self, string, morphology=None):
+        return self(string, "det", morphology)
+
+    def pron(self, string, morphology=None):
+        return self(string, "pron", morphology)
+
+    def adp(self, string, morphology=None):
+        return self(string, "adp", morphology)
+
+    def num(self, string, morphology=None):
+        return self(string, "num", morphology)
+
     def punct(self, string, morphology=None):
         return self(string, "punct", morphology)
 
@@ -103,37 +139,37 @@ class Lemmatizer(object):
         RETURNS (unicode): The lemma if the string was found, otherwise the
             original string.
         """
+        lookup_table = self.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup", {})
         key = orth if orth is not None else string
-        if key in self.lookup_table:
-            return self.lookup_table[key]
+        if key in lookup_table:
+            return lookup_table[key]
         return string
 
-
-def lemmatize(string, index, exceptions, rules):
-    orig = string
-    string = string.lower()
-    forms = []
-    oov_forms = []
-    for old, new in rules:
-        if string.endswith(old):
-            form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
-            if not form:
-                pass
-            elif form in index or not form.isalpha():
-                forms.append(form)
-            else:
-                oov_forms.append(form)
-    # Remove duplicates but preserve the ordering of applied "rules"
-    forms = list(OrderedDict.fromkeys(forms))
-    # Put exceptions at the front of the list, so they get priority.
-    # This is a dodgy heuristic -- but it's the best we can do until we get
-    # frequencies on this. We can at least prune out problematic exceptions,
-    # if they shadow more frequent analyses.
-    for form in exceptions.get(string, []):
-        if form not in forms:
-            forms.insert(0, form)
-    if not forms:
-        forms.extend(oov_forms)
-    if not forms:
-        forms.append(orig)
-    return forms
+    def lemmatize(self, string, index, exceptions, rules):
+        orig = string
+        string = string.lower()
+        forms = []
+        oov_forms = []
+        for old, new in rules:
+            if string.endswith(old):
+                form = string[: len(string) - len(old)] + new
+                if not form:
+                    pass
+                elif form in index or not form.isalpha():
+                    forms.append(form)
+                else:
+                    oov_forms.append(form)
+        # Remove duplicates but preserve the ordering of applied "rules"
+        forms = list(OrderedDict.fromkeys(forms))
+        # Put exceptions at the front of the list, so they get priority.
+        # This is a dodgy heuristic -- but it's the best we can do until we get
+        # frequencies on this. We can at least prune out problematic exceptions,
+        # if they shadow more frequent analyses.
+        for form in exceptions.get(string, []):
+            if form not in forms:
+                forms.insert(0, form)
+        if not forms:
+            forms.extend(oov_forms)
+        if not forms:
+            forms.append(orig)
+        return forms
diff --git a/spacy/lookups.py b/spacy/lookups.py
index 05a60f289..bf250b4b4 100644
--- a/spacy/lookups.py
+++ b/spacy/lookups.py
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@ from .util import SimpleFrozenDict, ensure_path
 from .strings import get_string_id
 
 
+UNSET = object()
+
+
 class Lookups(object):
     """Container for large lookup tables and dictionaries, e.g. lemmatization
     data or tokenizer exception lists. Lookups are available via vocab.lookups,
@@ -60,16 +63,20 @@ class Lookups(object):
         self._tables[name] = table
         return table
 
-    def get_table(self, name):
-        """Get a table. Raises an error if the table doesn't exist.
+    def get_table(self, name, default=UNSET):
+        """Get a table. Raises an error if the table doesn't exist and no
+        default value is provided.
 
         name (unicode): Name of the table.
+        default: Optional default value to return if table doesn't exist.
         RETURNS (Table): The table.
 
         DOCS: https://spacy.io/api/lookups#get_table
         """
         if name not in self._tables:
-            raise KeyError(Errors.E159.format(name=name, tables=self.tables))
+            if default == UNSET:
+                raise KeyError(Errors.E159.format(name=name, tables=self.tables))
+            return default
         return self._tables[name]
 
     def remove_table(self, name):
@@ -111,6 +118,7 @@ class Lookups(object):
 
         DOCS: https://spacy.io/api/lookups#from_bytes
         """
+        self._tables = OrderedDict()
         for key, value in srsly.msgpack_loads(bytes_data).items():
             self._tables[key] = Table(key)
             self._tables[key].update(value)
diff --git a/spacy/tests/doc/test_creation.py b/spacy/tests/doc/test_creation.py
index b222f6bf0..120fb6e28 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/doc/test_creation.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/doc/test_creation.py
@@ -5,13 +5,14 @@ import pytest
 from spacy.vocab import Vocab
 from spacy.tokens import Doc
 from spacy.lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
-from spacy.lookups import Table
+from spacy.lookups import Lookups
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def lemmatizer():
-    lookup = Table(data={"dogs": "dog", "boxen": "box", "mice": "mouse"})
-    return Lemmatizer(lookup=lookup)
+    lookups = Lookups()
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_lookup", {"dogs": "dog", "boxen": "box", "mice": "mouse"})
+    return Lemmatizer(lookups)
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
diff --git a/spacy/tests/morphology/test_morph_features.py b/spacy/tests/morphology/test_morph_features.py
index 4b8f0d754..41f807143 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/morphology/test_morph_features.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/morphology/test_morph_features.py
@@ -5,11 +5,13 @@ import pytest
 from spacy.morphology import Morphology
 from spacy.strings import StringStore, get_string_id
 from spacy.lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
+from spacy.lookups import Lookups
 
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def morphology():
-    return Morphology(StringStore(), {}, Lemmatizer())
+    lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(Lookups())
+    return Morphology(StringStore(), {}, lemmatizer)
 
 
 def test_init(morphology):
diff --git a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_tagger.py b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_tagger.py
deleted file mode 100644
index e843723e1..000000000
--- a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_tagger.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,22 +0,0 @@
-# coding: utf8
-from __future__ import unicode_literals
-
-import pytest
-from spacy.lang.en import English
-from spacy.lookups import Lookups
-
-
-def test_tagger_warns_no_lemma_lookups():
-    nlp = English()
-    nlp.vocab.lookups = Lookups()
-    assert not len(nlp.vocab.lookups)
-    tagger = nlp.create_pipe("tagger")
-    with pytest.warns(UserWarning):
-        tagger.begin_training()
-    nlp.add_pipe(tagger)
-    with pytest.warns(UserWarning):
-        nlp.begin_training()
-    nlp.vocab.lookups.add_table("lemma_lookup")
-    with pytest.warns(None) as record:
-        nlp.begin_training()
-        assert not record.list
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1-1000.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1-1000.py
index b3f347765..dca3d624f 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1-1000.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1-1000.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from spacy.symbols import POS, VERB, VerbForm_inf
 from spacy.vocab import Vocab
 from spacy.language import Language
 from spacy.lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
+from spacy.lookups import Lookups
 from spacy.tokens import Doc, Span
 
 from ..util import get_doc, make_tempdir
@@ -173,8 +174,11 @@ def test_issue595():
     """Test lemmatization of base forms"""
     words = ["Do", "n't", "feed", "the", "dog"]
     tag_map = {"VB": {POS: VERB, VerbForm_inf: True}}
-    rules = {"verb": [["ed", "e"]]}
-    lemmatizer = Lemmatizer({"verb": {}}, {"verb": {}}, rules)
+    lookups = Lookups()
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_rules", {"verb": [["ed", "e"]]})
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_index", {"verb": {}})
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_exc", {"verb": {}})
+    lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookups)
     vocab = Vocab(lemmatizer=lemmatizer, tag_map=tag_map)
     doc = Doc(vocab, words=words)
     doc[2].tag_ = "VB"
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1001-1500.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1001-1500.py
index a405d7b0f..889a5dc71 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1001-1500.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1001-1500.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ from spacy.lang.lex_attrs import LEX_ATTRS
 from spacy.matcher import Matcher
 from spacy.tokenizer import Tokenizer
 from spacy.lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
+from spacy.lookups import Lookups
 from spacy.symbols import ORTH, LEMMA, POS, VERB, VerbForm_part
 
 
@@ -91,10 +92,11 @@ def test_issue1375():
 
 def test_issue1387():
     tag_map = {"VBG": {POS: VERB, VerbForm_part: True}}
-    index = {"verb": ("cope", "cop")}
-    exc = {"verb": {"coping": ("cope",)}}
-    rules = {"verb": [["ing", ""]]}
-    lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(index, exc, rules)
+    lookups = Lookups()
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_index", {"verb": ("cope", "cop")})
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_exc", {"verb": {"coping": ("cope",)}})
+    lookups.add_table("lemma_rules", {"verb": [["ing", ""]]})
+    lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookups)
     vocab = Vocab(lemmatizer=lemmatizer, tag_map=tag_map)
     doc = Doc(vocab, words=["coping"])
     doc[0].tag_ = "VBG"
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1501-2000.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1501-2000.py
index 520090bb4..a9cf070cd 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1501-2000.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue1501-2000.py
@@ -126,7 +126,8 @@ def test_issue1727():
     vectors = Vectors(data=data, keys=["I", "am", "Matt"])
     tagger = Tagger(Vocab())
     tagger.add_label("PRP")
-    tagger.begin_training()
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning):
+        tagger.begin_training()
     assert tagger.cfg.get("pretrained_dims", 0) == 0
     tagger.vocab.vectors = vectors
     with make_tempdir() as path:
diff --git a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue2501-3000.py b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue2501-3000.py
index a0b1e2aac..e26ccbf4b 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue2501-3000.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/regression/test_issue2501-3000.py
@@ -22,7 +22,8 @@ def test_issue2564():
     """Test the tagger sets is_tagged correctly when used via Language.pipe."""
     nlp = Language()
     tagger = nlp.create_pipe("tagger")
-    tagger.begin_training()  # initialise weights
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning):
+        tagger.begin_training()  # initialise weights
     nlp.add_pipe(tagger)
     doc = nlp("hello world")
     assert doc.is_tagged
diff --git a/spacy/tests/test_lemmatizer.py b/spacy/tests/test_lemmatizer.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..701222afc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spacy/tests/test_lemmatizer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+# coding: utf8
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+import pytest
+from spacy.tokens import Doc
+from spacy.language import Language
+from spacy.lookups import Lookups
+
+
+def test_lemmatizer_reflects_lookups_changes():
+    """Test for an issue that'd cause lookups available in a model loaded from
+    disk to not be reflected in the lemmatizer."""
+    nlp = Language()
+    assert Doc(nlp.vocab, words=["foo"])[0].lemma_ == "foo"
+    table = nlp.vocab.lookups.add_table("lemma_lookup")
+    table["foo"] = "bar"
+    assert Doc(nlp.vocab, words=["foo"])[0].lemma_ == "bar"
+    table = nlp.vocab.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup")
+    table["hello"] = "world"
+    # The update to the table should be reflected in the lemmatizer
+    assert Doc(nlp.vocab, words=["hello"])[0].lemma_ == "world"
+    new_nlp = Language()
+    table = new_nlp.vocab.lookups.add_table("lemma_lookup")
+    table["hello"] = "hi"
+    assert Doc(new_nlp.vocab, words=["hello"])[0].lemma_ == "hi"
+    nlp_bytes = nlp.to_bytes()
+    new_nlp.from_bytes(nlp_bytes)
+    # Make sure we have the previously saved lookup table
+    assert len(new_nlp.vocab.lookups) == 1
+    assert len(new_nlp.vocab.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup")) == 2
+    assert new_nlp.vocab.lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup")["hello"] == "world"
+    assert Doc(new_nlp.vocab, words=["foo"])[0].lemma_ == "bar"
+    assert Doc(new_nlp.vocab, words=["hello"])[0].lemma_ == "world"
+
+
+def test_tagger_warns_no_lemma_lookups():
+    nlp = Language()
+    nlp.vocab.lookups = Lookups()
+    assert not len(nlp.vocab.lookups)
+    tagger = nlp.create_pipe("tagger")
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning):
+        tagger.begin_training()
+    nlp.add_pipe(tagger)
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning):
+        nlp.begin_training()
+    nlp.vocab.lookups.add_table("lemma_lookup")
+    with pytest.warns(None) as record:
+        nlp.begin_training()
+        assert not record.list
diff --git a/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_urls.py b/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_urls.py
index ac64e99bd..59c2b3204 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_urls.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/tokenizer/test_urls.py
@@ -111,16 +111,12 @@ SUFFIXES = ['"', ":", ">"]
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("url", URLS_SHOULD_MATCH)
 def test_should_match(en_tokenizer, url):
-    token_match = en_tokenizer.token_match
-    if token_match:
-        assert token_match(url)
+    assert en_tokenizer.token_match(url) is not None
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("url", URLS_SHOULD_NOT_MATCH)
 def test_should_not_match(en_tokenizer, url):
-    token_match = en_tokenizer.token_match
-    if token_match:
-        assert not token_match(url)
+    assert en_tokenizer.token_match(url) is None
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize("url", URLS_BASIC)
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index ca2c416b1..c7ce38c3f 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -467,31 +467,6 @@ def expand_exc(excs, search, replace):
     return new_excs
 
 
-def get_lemma_tables(lookups):
-    """Load lemmatizer data from lookups table. Mostly used via
-    Language.Defaults.create_lemmatizer, but available as helper so it can be
-    reused in language classes that implement custom lemmatizers.
-
-    lookups (Lookups): The lookups table.
-    RETURNS (tuple): A (lemma_rules, lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_lookup)
-        tuple that can be used to initialize a Lemmatizer.
-    """
-    lemma_rules = {}
-    lemma_index = {}
-    lemma_exc = {}
-    lemma_lookup = None
-    if lookups is not None:
-        if "lemma_rules" in lookups:
-            lemma_rules = lookups.get_table("lemma_rules")
-        if "lemma_index" in lookups:
-            lemma_index = lookups.get_table("lemma_index")
-        if "lemma_exc" in lookups:
-            lemma_exc = lookups.get_table("lemma_exc")
-        if "lemma_lookup" in lookups:
-            lemma_lookup = lookups.get_table("lemma_lookup")
-    return (lemma_rules, lemma_index, lemma_exc, lemma_lookup)
-
-
 def normalize_slice(length, start, stop, step=None):
     if not (step is None or step == 1):
         raise ValueError(Errors.E057)
diff --git a/spacy/vocab.pyx b/spacy/vocab.pyx
index 62c1791b9..c0d835553 100644
--- a/spacy/vocab.pyx
+++ b/spacy/vocab.pyx
@@ -50,10 +50,10 @@ cdef class Vocab:
         """
         lex_attr_getters = lex_attr_getters if lex_attr_getters is not None else {}
         tag_map = tag_map if tag_map is not None else {}
-        if lemmatizer in (None, True, False):
-            lemmatizer = Lemmatizer({}, {}, {})
         if lookups in (None, True, False):
             lookups = Lookups()
+        if lemmatizer in (None, True, False):
+            lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookups)
         self.cfg = {'oov_prob': oov_prob}
         self.mem = Pool()
         self._by_orth = PreshMap()
diff --git a/website/docs/api/lemmatizer.md b/website/docs/api/lemmatizer.md
index 805e96b0f..7570e4ea2 100644
--- a/website/docs/api/lemmatizer.md
+++ b/website/docs/api/lemmatizer.md
@@ -10,22 +10,40 @@ lookup tables.
 
 ## Lemmatizer.\_\_init\_\_ {#init tag="method"}
 
-Create a `Lemmatizer`.
+Initialize a `Lemmatizer`. Typically, this happens under the hood within spaCy
+when a `Language` subclass and its `Vocab` is initialized.
 
 > #### Example
 >
 > ```python
 > from spacy.lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
-> lemmatizer = Lemmatizer()
+> from spacy.lookups import Lookups
+> lookups = Lookups()
+> lookups.add_table("lemma_rules", {"noun": [["s", ""]]})
+> lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookups)
 > ```
+>
+> For examples of the data format, see the
+> [`spacy-lookups-data`](https://github.com/explosion/spacy-lookups-data) repo.
 
-| Name         | Type          | Description                                                |
-| ------------ | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
-| `index`      | dict / `None` | Inventory of lemmas in the language.                       |
-| `exceptions` | dict / `None` | Mapping of string forms to lemmas that bypass the `rules`. |
-| `rules`      | dict / `None` | List of suffix rewrite rules.                              |
-| `lookup`     | dict / `None` | Lookup table mapping string to their lemmas.               |
-| **RETURNS**  | `Lemmatizer`  | The newly created object.                                  |
+| Name                                   | Type                      | Description                                                                                                               |
+| -------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| `lookups` <Tag variant="new">2.2</Tag> | [`Lookups`](/api/lookups) | The lookups object containing the (optional) tables `"lemma_rules"`, `"lemma_index"`, `"lemma_exc"` and `"lemma_lookup"`. |
+| **RETURNS**                            | `Lemmatizer`              | The newly created object.                                                                                                 |
+
+<Infobox title="Deprecation note" variant="danger">
+
+As of v2.2, the lemmatizer is initialized with a [`Lookups`](/api/lookups)
+object containing tables for the different components. This makes it easier for
+spaCy to share and serialize rules and lookup tables via the `Vocab`, and allows
+users to modify lemmatizer data at runtime by updating `nlp.vocab.lookups`.
+
+```diff
+- lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(rules=lemma_rules)
++ lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookups)
+```
+
+</Infobox>
 
 ## Lemmatizer.\_\_call\_\_ {#call tag="method"}
 
@@ -35,8 +53,10 @@ Lemmatize a string.
 >
 > ```python
 > from spacy.lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
-> rules = {"noun": [["s", ""]]}
-> lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(index={}, exceptions={}, rules=rules)
+> from spacy.lookups import Lookups
+> lookups = Loookups()
+> lookups.add_table("lemma_rules", {"noun": [["s", ""]]})
+> lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookups)
 > lemmas = lemmatizer("ducks", "NOUN")
 > assert lemmas == ["duck"]
 > ```
@@ -52,14 +72,13 @@ Lemmatize a string.
 
 Look up a lemma in the lookup table, if available. If no lemma is found, the
 original string is returned. Languages can provide a
-[lookup table](/usage/adding-languages#lemmatizer) via the `resources`, set on
-the individual `Language` class.
+[lookup table](/usage/adding-languages#lemmatizer) via the `Lookups`.
 
 > #### Example
 >
 > ```python
-> lookup = {"going": "go"}
-> lemmatizer = Lemmatizer(lookup=lookup)
+> lookups = Lookups()
+> lookups.add_table("lemma_lookup", {"going": "go"})
 > assert lemmatizer.lookup("going") == "go"
 > ```
 
@@ -91,9 +110,6 @@ lemmatization entirely.
 
 ## Attributes {#attributes}
 
-| Name                                      | Type          | Description                                                |
-| ----------------------------------------- | ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
-| `index`                                   | dict / `None` | Inventory of lemmas in the language.                       |
-| `exc`                                     | dict / `None` | Mapping of string forms to lemmas that bypass the `rules`. |
-| `rules`                                   | dict / `None` | List of suffix rewrite rules.                              |
-| `lookup_table` <Tag variant="new">2</Tag> | dict / `None` | The lemma lookup table, if available.                      |
+| Name                                   | Type                      | Description                                                     |
+| -------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| `lookups` <Tag variant="new">2.2</Tag> | [`Lookups`](/api/lookups) | The lookups object containing the rules and data, if available. |