diff --git a/src/Query/DescriptionFactory.php b/src/Query/DescriptionFactory.php
index ab73abc348..8d099c1d54 100644
--- a/src/Query/DescriptionFactory.php
+++ b/src/Query/DescriptionFactory.php
@@ -133,6 +133,8 @@ public function newFromDataValue( DataValue $dataValue ) {
 		if ( $dataValue instanceof MonolingualTextValue ) {
 			$container =  $dataValue->getDataItem();
 
+			$value = '';
+
 			foreach ( $dataValue->getPropertyDataItems() as $property ) {
 				foreach ( $container->getSemanticData()->getPropertyValues( $property ) as $val ) {
 					$value .= ( $property->getKey() == '_LCODE' ? '@' : '' ) . $val->getString();