Cultural substitution refers to the translation of some known or
unknown concepts in the source language by using the substitution from
the culture of the receptor language rather than by other available means
of meaning equivalence. For examples, a black sheep is translated into
literal Thai as a cub outside a pen rather than a person with different and
unacceptable characters, and a corner stone is translated as a supreme pole,
rather than an indispensable and fundamental basis. This study analyzes
cultural substitution in English to Thai translation in order to document its
types, linguistic patterns, and cultural significance; and to find and draw
conclusions as to the translators’ opinion of this technique. In the first part
of the study, culturally substituted items were randomly collected from 1000
pages of different types of English to Thai translated works which were
published during B.E. 2542 (1997) to B.E. 2552 (2007). These data were
then classified and listed according to their generic types and presented in
categorized tables with their linguistic and cultural comments as findings.
In the second part, 12 translators whose works have been published during
the past 10 years were asked to fill in questionnaires and interviewed on
their opinions on cultural substitute translation technique. The conclusions
of the opinions are provided, and the recommendations for the use of the
findings and for further research are offered.