diff --git a/Documentation/sphinx/automarkup.py b/Documentation/sphinx/automarkup.py
index acf5473002f3..cc348b219fca 100644
--- a/Documentation/sphinx/automarkup.py
+++ b/Documentation/sphinx/automarkup.py
@@ -271,19 +271,30 @@ def get_c_namespace(app, docname):
 def auto_markup(app, doctree, name):
     global c_namespace
     c_namespace = get_c_namespace(app, name)
+    def text_but_not_a_reference(node):
+        # The nodes.literal test catches ``literal text``, its purpose is to
+        # avoid adding cross-references to functions that have been explicitly
+        # marked with cc:func:.
+        if not isinstance(node, nodes.Text) or isinstance(node.parent, nodes.literal):
+            return False
+
+        child_of_reference = False
+        parent = node.parent
+        while parent:
+            if isinstance(parent, nodes.Referential):
+                child_of_reference = True
+                break
+            parent = parent.parent
+        return not child_of_reference
+
     #
     # This loop could eventually be improved on.  Someday maybe we
     # want a proper tree traversal with a lot of awareness of which
     # kinds of nodes to prune.  But this works well for now.
     #
-    # The nodes.literal test catches ``literal text``, its purpose is to
-    # avoid adding cross-references to functions that have been explicitly
-    # marked with cc:func:.
-    #
     for para in doctree.traverse(nodes.paragraph):
-        for node in para.traverse(nodes.Text):
-            if not isinstance(node.parent, nodes.literal):
-                node.parent.replace(node, markup_refs(name, app, node))
+        for node in para.traverse(condition=text_but_not_a_reference):
+            node.parent.replace(node, markup_refs(name, app, node))
 
 def setup(app):
     app.connect('doctree-resolved', auto_markup)