functions allowed in prerequisite list?

[gk]

I am trying to extract a portion of the stem of a target of a pattern rule 
for use in the prerequisite list.

Suppose I have a target file: 'foo.PATTERN.c'
I want to this target to have a prerequisite: 
'someDirectory/PATTERN.anotherSuffix'

I seem to recall some mention of this but can't find it in make 3.79 manual.
I could not find make 3.80 html manual available anywhere online and the 
source distribution gives no instruction on how to build html form texinfo 
sources.

I want 'make foo.PATTERN.c' to make PATTERN
I do not know what the explicit value, PATTERN, will be ahead of time so I 
cannot simply use it in the pattern rule.

I'm looking for something along the lines of the following (although suffix 
function isn't quite what I need):

%.c: $(suffix $*) %
        @echo $@

PATTERN:
        @echo $@

Thanks,
Greg Keraunen