diff --git a/Makefile.in b/Makefile.in
index ac15088418f..a107cbba2ca 100644
--- a/Makefile.in
+++ b/Makefile.in
@@ -1147,12 +1147,14 @@ PSS   = lispref-ps   lispintro-ps   emacs-ps   misc-ps
 DOCS = $(DVIS) $(HTMLS) $(INFOS) $(PDFS) $(PSS)
 
 define MAKE_DOC_FOR_DOCLANG
-.PHONY: $(1)-DOCLANG-$(2)
-$(1)-DOCLANG-$(2):
+$(1)-DOCLANG-$(2): $(1)-common
 	$$(MAKE) -C doc/$$(subst -, DOCLANG=$(2) ,$(1))
 
 endef
 define MAKE_DOC
+# Define a target to which dependencies common to all of the doc files
+# in this directory may be assigned.
+$(1)-common:
 $(1): $$(addprefix $(1)-DOCLANG-,$(DOCLANGS))
 
 $$(foreach lang,$(DOCLANGS),$$(eval $$(call MAKE_DOC_FOR_DOCLANG,$(1),$$(lang))))
@@ -1174,10 +1176,10 @@ ps: $(PSS)
 # Depending on src is sufficient, but ends up being slow, since the
 # uncompiled lisp/org/*.el files are used to build the .texi files
 # (which can be slow even with the elc files).
-misc-info: lisp
+misc-info-common: lisp
 # Using src rather than lisp because one is less likely to get unnecessary
 # rebuilds of stuff that is not strictly necessary for generating manuals.
-misc-dvi misc-html misc-pdf misc-ps: src
+misc-dvi-common misc-html-common misc-pdf-common misc-ps-common: src
 
 info-dir: ${srcdir}/info/dir