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This phrase from a song "ano ko ga futteita makka na sukaafu" is gramatically
correct? shouldnt be

ano ko ga makka na sukaafu o futteita ?

BTW, ko is translated as "girl" . Ko has many meanings, but I dont remember
any of them being "girl". Shouldnt be "kid" here?
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2017-06-27T23:26:10.253
48811
2017-06-30T04:20:44.397
2017-06-28T00:08:47.220
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relative-clauses
is this sentence gramatically correct? "ano ko ga futteita makka na sukaafu"
Two things to address here, I'll start with the easy one.

子(ko) means 'child' for certain, but Japanese people tend to view children as
more or less as a feminine entity, regardless of the child's sex/gender, in
the case of referring to them. In this case, 'child' and 'girl' are more or
less synonymous.

As for the order of the sentence in the song, it is a literary device akin to
using a semi-colon or comma in English, when the complete sentence is spoken
and the subject given after. If you translate the sentence directly, you might
end up with:

> あの子が振っていた真っ赤なスカーフ  
>  ano ko ga futteita makka na sukaafu  
>  She was waving it, her bright red scarf

I'm making some assumption about the meanings of the words, without some
additional context (what's the song?) I can't tell you exactly what they are
describing.
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2017-06-28T01:06:43.620
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2017-06-28T01:06:43.620
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To add to psosuna's answer, it's worth noting that the line in question is not
a sentence, grammatically speaking. It is a noun phrase, with スカーフ as the main
or "head" noun and the preceding portions all describing the scarf. English
makes use of relative clauses, with _"that"_ used to coordinate, whereas
Japanese allows modifying phrases to directly modify nouns.

Direct translation of the Japanese:

> あの子が振っていた真っ赤なスカーフ  
>  _ano ko ga futte ita makka na sukāfu_  
>  that girl [subj] waving was pure-red [adj] scarf

An idiomatic English rendering, keeping the structure as a noun phrase:

> the pure-red scarf that that girl was waving
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2017-06-28T06:55:35.100
48827
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> ano ko ga futteita makka na sukaafu

This is a part of [lyrics](http://www.kasi-time.com/item-18586.html) of an
inserted song to the animated movie Space Battleship Yamato (Japanese: 宇宙戦艦ヤマト
Uchū Senkan Yamato, also called Cosmoship Yamato).

Not only I but most Japanese don't think the given phrase means _ano ko ga
makka na sukaafu o futteita_.

It is a part of an apparently unfinished sentence but it is considered a part
of a sentence omitting the important rest of the whole sentence, therefore the
phrase itself gives us who read or sing it room to image.

The room would be filled with various things basically depend on the context
surrounding the phrase and more importantly depend on the ability of the
recipients.

Before I read the whole lyrics of the song, I imagined the whole or the
complete sentence including the phrase might be like:

  * 私は **あの娘が振っていた真っ赤なスカーフ** が忘れられない。  
_I can not forget **the bright red scarf that the girl was waving**_.  
or

  * 私は **あの娘が振っていた真っ赤なスカーフ** が目に焼き付いている。  
_**The bright red scarf that the girl was waving** is branded on my mind_.

> "ano ko ga futteita makka na sukaafu" is gramatically correct?

Yes, the given phrase is gramatically perfectly correct as Japanese and it
uses a technique in rhetoric, called a [体言止め]{taigendome} or "substantive
stop" (to use a noun in the end of a phrase omitting an important part like a
predicate or a verb), which gives the phrase momentum, reverberation and gives
room to think.

As for _**ko**_ , there are roughly three ways to use in Japanese.

The First one is very common. When you point your finger at a boy or a girl
around under 10 to 12 years old, you would say " **ano-ko** or _that
kid/child_ ".

The second one is used, when parents, especially a mother, talk about their
son or daughter, even how old the "ko" may be, in a phrase such as: " **ano-
ko** wa ima nani o shite-iru ka-shira?" " _What is my son/daughter is doing
now?_ "

As for the last one, _**ko**_ in _ano-ko_ in the given phrase, it means a
_**girl**_ which is written **娘** not 子 in _kanji_. There is not any rule
neither in kun-yomi nor in on-yomi for 娘 to be read as "KO", I think, but we
write "あの娘" and read it as "ano-KO" habitually.

Usually _**ano-ko**_ is a set phrase which means _that girl_ (あの娘 or あの女の子)
not _that child/kid_ (あの子), which is a girl as an object of love.

* * *

## Lyrics

真っ赤なスカーフ

**あの娘がふっていた**  
**真っ赤なスカーフ**  
誰のためだと 思っているか  
誰のためでも いいじゃないか  
みんなその気でいればいい  
旅立つ男の胸には  
ロマンのかけらがほしいのさ  
ラララ...  
ラララ... 真っ赤なスカーフ
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2017-06-29T13:54:17.163
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