diff --git a/bash_completion b/bash_completion
index b2ad64a3..05f12936 100644
--- a/bash_completion
+++ b/bash_completion
@@ -326,7 +326,12 @@ _get_cword()
 # COMP_WORDBREAKS.
 # @see _get_cword()
 #
-_get_pword() { _get_cword "${@:-}" 1; }
+_get_pword() 
+{
+    if [ $COMP_CWORD -ge 1 ]; then
+        _get_cword "${@:-}" 1;
+    fi
+}
 
 
 # If the word-to-complete contains a colon (:), left-trim COMPREPLY items with