diff --git a/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/FunctionReferenceRule.java b/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/FunctionReferenceRule.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c4a0cf73468
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/FunctionReferenceRule.java
@@ -0,0 +1,104 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2013, 2013 Andrew Gvozdev and others.
+ * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+ * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
+ * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+ *
+ * Contributors:
+ *     Andrew Gvozdev - Initial API and implementation
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.eclipse.cdt.make.internal.ui.text.makefile;
+
+import org.eclipse.jface.text.rules.ICharacterScanner;
+import org.eclipse.jface.text.rules.IToken;
+import org.eclipse.jface.text.rules.IWordDetector;
+import org.eclipse.jface.text.rules.Token;
+import org.eclipse.jface.text.rules.WordRule;
+
+public class FunctionReferenceRule extends WordRule {
+	/** Buffer used for pattern detection. */
+	private StringBuffer fBuffer= new StringBuffer();
+
+	@SuppressWarnings("nls")
+	private final static String[] functions = {
+		"subst", "patsubst", "strip", "findstring",
+		"filter", "filter-out", "sort",
+		"word", "words", "wordlist", "firstword", "lastword",
+		"dir", "notdir",
+		"suffix", "basename", "addsuffix", "addprefix",
+		"join", "wildcard", "realpath", "abspath",
+		"if", "or", "and", "foreach",
+		"call", "value", "eval", "origin", "flavor",
+		"shell", "error", "warning", "info",
+	};
+
+	static class TagDetector implements IWordDetector {
+		private boolean isClosedBracket = false;
+		private int bracketNesting = 0;
+		@Override
+		public boolean isWordStart(char c) {
+			isClosedBracket = c == ')';
+			return isClosedBracket || c == '$';
+		}
+		@Override
+		public boolean isWordPart(char c) {
+			return !isClosedBracket && (c == '(' || Character.isJavaIdentifierPart(c));
+		}
+	}
+
+	public FunctionReferenceRule(IToken token) {
+		super(new TagDetector());
+		for (String f : functions) {
+			addWord("$(" + f, token); //$NON-NLS-1$
+		}
+		addWord(")", token); //$NON-NLS-1$
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	public IToken evaluate(ICharacterScanner scanner) {
+		int c= scanner.read();
+		if (c == ')') {
+			if (((TagDetector)fDetector).bracketNesting > 0) {
+				((TagDetector)fDetector).bracketNesting--;
+				return (IToken)fWords.get(")"); //$NON-NLS-1$
+			}
+			return fDefaultToken;
+		}
+
+		if (c != ICharacterScanner.EOF && fDetector.isWordStart((char) c)) {
+			if (fColumn == UNDEFINED || (fColumn == scanner.getColumn() - 1)) {
+
+				fBuffer.setLength(0);
+				do {
+					fBuffer.append((char) c);
+					c= scanner.read();
+				} while (c != ICharacterScanner.EOF && fDetector.isWordPart((char) c));
+				scanner.unread();
+
+				String buffer= fBuffer.toString();
+
+				IToken token= (IToken)fWords.get(buffer);
+
+				if (token != null) {
+					((TagDetector)fDetector).bracketNesting++;
+					return token;
+				}
+
+				if (fDefaultToken.isUndefined())
+					unreadBuffer(scanner);
+
+				return fDefaultToken;
+			}
+		}
+
+		scanner.unread();
+		return Token.UNDEFINED;
+	}
+
+	@Override
+	protected void unreadBuffer(ICharacterScanner scanner) {
+		for (int i= fBuffer.length() - 1; i >= 0; i--)
+			scanner.unread();
+	}
+}
diff --git a/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/MakefileCodeScanner.java b/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/MakefileCodeScanner.java
index bfd74f2fa5a..a11c29ab1c5 100644
--- a/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/MakefileCodeScanner.java
+++ b/build/org.eclipse.cdt.make.ui/src/org/eclipse/cdt/make/internal/ui/text/makefile/MakefileCodeScanner.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*******************************************************************************
- * Copyright (c) 2000, 2009 QNX Software Systems and others.
+ * Copyright (c) 2000, 2013 QNX Software Systems and others.
  * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
  * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
  * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
@@ -31,14 +31,6 @@ public class MakefileCodeScanner extends AbstractMakefileCodeScanner {
 		"export", "unexport", "vpath" //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$
 	};
 
-	private final static String[] functions = { "subst", "patsubst", "strip", //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$
-		"findstring", "filter", "sort", "dir", "notdir", //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$ //$NON-NLS-4$ //$NON-NLS-5$
-		"suffix", "basename", "addsuffix", "addprefix", //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$ //$NON-NLS-4$
-		"join", "word", "words", "wordlist", //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$ //$NON-NLS-4$
-		"firstword", "wildcard", "error", "warning", //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$ //$NON-NLS-4$
-		"shell", "origin", "foreach", "call" //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$ //$NON-NLS-4$
-	};
-
 	public static final String[] fTokenProperties = new String[] {
 			ColorManager.MAKE_KEYWORD_COLOR,
 			ColorManager.MAKE_FUNCTION_COLOR,
@@ -97,18 +89,7 @@ public class MakefileCodeScanner extends AbstractMakefileCodeScanner {
 		keyWordRule.setColumnConstraint(0);
 		rules.add(keyWordRule);
 
-		WordRule functionRule = new WordRule(new IWordDetector() {
-			@Override
-			public boolean isWordPart(char c) {
-				return Character.isLetterOrDigit(c) || c == '_';
-			}
-			@Override
-			public boolean isWordStart(char c) {
-				return Character.isLetterOrDigit(c) || c == '_';
-			}}, other);
-		for (int i = 0; i < functions.length; i++)
-			functionRule.addWord(functions[i], function);
-		rules.add(functionRule);
+		rules.add(new FunctionReferenceRule(function));
 
 		rules.add(new MacroReferenceRule(macroRef, "$(", ")")); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
 		rules.add(new MacroReferenceRule(macroRef, "${", "}")); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$
@@ -118,9 +99,6 @@ public class MakefileCodeScanner extends AbstractMakefileCodeScanner {
 		return rules;
 	}
 
-	/*
-	 * @see AbstractMakefileCodeScanner#getTokenProperties()
-	 */
 	@Override
 	protected String[] getTokenProperties() {
 		return fTokenProperties;