diff --git a/utilities/textProcessing.bash b/utilities/textProcessing.bash
index 0bbe08d..3355899 100644
--- a/utilities/textProcessing.bash
+++ b/utilities/textProcessing.bash
@@ -119,7 +119,8 @@ _stopWords_() {
     if [ -f "${sedFile}" ]; then
         string="$(echo "${string}" | ${SED_COMMAND} -f "${sedFile}")"
     else
-        debug "Missing sedfile in _stopWords_()"
+        error "Missing sedfile in _stopWords_()"
+        return 1
     fi
 
     declare -a localStopWords=()