Heard on The Judges: new extension?

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:49 PM -0400 7/13/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Mid-thirty-ish white female "standard" (i.e obviously not a Southern
>speaker, but there's no other claim that I can make) speaker:
>
>"Well, our real problem is that Jane _is sisters with the landlord_."
>
>
>I've heard _BE friends with NP_ probably from birth. But I would expect
>
>"... Jane is the landlord's sister"
>
>in this case. The other version is brand-new to me.
>--
Googling turns up instances of "is sisters/brothers/cousins with",
although not in huge numbers (a couple thou at most).  I didn't check
to see whether "is sisters/brothers with" is necessarily symmetric or
if, say, Shirley McLaine can be "sisters with" Warren Beatty, given
that she is indeed a sister of Beatty.  I suspect it has to be
symmetric, although since I've never actually heard it live so I'm
just guessing; if I'm right, it's stronger than "is (a) sister of".

LH

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