An analysis of the modulation system in Vietnamese from a systemic functional perspective and some suggestions for legal translation

Systemic Functional Grammar (hereinafter referred to as SFG) is a linguistic area that has attracted numerous attention from linguistic scholars in Vietnam and worldwide. In this paper, we focus on Modulation analysis in Vietnamese, including Obligation and Inclination, from a Systemic Functional perspective. The qualitative research methodology will be applied to explore the aspects of Modulation in Vietnamese. The descriptive language method is mainly employed in this article to investigate the Modulation system in Vietnamese from the SFG viewpoint. The data for the investigation of Vietnamese Modulation was collected from formal online newspapers in Vietnamese. The data for the recommendation for legal translation was the Singapore Companies Act. The results of the study showed that the Modulation system in Vietnamese is composed of two categories: Obligation and Inclination. Regarding Obligation, it consists of four subcategories: necessity, Obligation, permission, and expectation. As for inclination, it includes Intention and Willingness. Then the results of the study will be employed to make some suggestions for legal translation in


Introduction
Modality is an aspect of linguistics that has been receiving various concerns among domestic and international scholars. However, the research on Modality is quite complex because each language has its own Modality systems (T. T. H. Nguyen, 2006). Additionally, in one language, each linguist has their own research approaches to Modality. In Vietnam, studies on Modality have been conducted with numerous approaches, from traditional grammar to functional ones. However, an approach to Modality from Systemic Functional Grammar is still new and thus has a lot of gaps.
As mentioned above, an application of the Modulation system to analyze Vietnamese still needs to be more extensive for the differences between the two languages. Additionally, the analysis of legal discourse and then making some recommendations of English and Vietnamese translation has been quite completely new, so it is meaningful to investigate several aspects of SFG as well as its application in translation (B. V. Nguyen & Ngo, 2021; X.

Literature review
In the world, in terms of Modality, linguists have approached it in various ways, from traditional grammar to functional one. But in Vietnam, most of the studies have approached Modality from traditional grammar by Vietnamese typical linguistic authors such as Hoang Phe, Dinh Van Duc, Le Dong, and Nguyen Van Hiep in the studies about Vietnamese (Nguyễn, 2002). In terms of functional grammar, there are works by Cao Xuan Hao. Regarding systemic functional grammar, Modality has been approached by Hoang Van Van in his study about interpersonal analysis of a Vietnamese middle school science textbook (Van Van, 2020). Therefore, it can be seen that Modality analysis in Vietnamese is a field that is quite new in Vietnam. For that reason, we chose to explore facets of Modality from a systemic functional perspective and then applied this analysis in making suggestions for legal translation. The novel aspects of this research are to explore the facets of the Modulation system in Vietnamese. More importantly, some suggestions for legal translation have been made thanks to the research's analyzed results (Manfredi, 2014;Olsen, Lorz, & Stein, 2009;Van Van, 2006). Therefore, it is expected to make contributions to comprehend and translate English legal texts, which is essential to approach a foreign legal system in English (Manfredi, 2014;Olsen et al., 2009;Simonnaes & Kristiansen, 2019).

Theoretical framework
Because of the limitation of the number of pages in this paper, we just made an overview in terms of Modality in SFG and gave more details for Modulation. According to Halliday (1998), language is composed of three meta-functions, and Modality is a component of the interpersonal function (Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday, 1998;M.A.K Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). Matthiessen (2013) demonstrated that interpersonal meaning is a linguistic resource expressing interaction, social role, and the relationship between the speaker or writer and listener or receiver (Matthiessen, 2013). In addition, Thompson (2013) adds that interpersonal meaning is not only the relationship or interaction between the speaker and the listener, but it also reveals the participants' views of the world (Thompson, 1996). The interpersonal meaning is realized through the system of Mood, Modality, and Person system. However, in this article, we just focus on the Modulation analysis in Vietnamese, which is a component of the Modality system, in order to make some suggestions for legal translation.
The Modality system might be summarized in Figure 1 below: In the SFG, Modality is classified into Modularization and Modulation. The modulation system reflects the speaker's level of confidence in the eventual success of the exchange in terms of the degree of Obligation as being allowed to, be supposed to, be requested to, need, should, must in command and inclination such as willing to, anxious to, determined to, will, will not, may,… in an offer (M.A. K Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004, p. 147

Direct
The purpose of the study The study used a qualitative approach and applied the Modulation analysis from the Systemic Functional Grammar perspective by Halliday in order to explore two main issues: (1) The linguistic features of the Modulation system in Vietnamese.
(2) Application of Modulation analysis in translating legal English.

Research methodology and data
In terms of the research methodology, a qualitative approach was employed to investigate the characteristics of the Modulation system in Vietnamese. The language description research methodology has been applied to investigate Vietnamese's linguistic features in Modulation analysis (Iimura, 2021). Specifically, based on Modulation in English in studies by Halliday and other linguistic scholars who are keen on Systemic functional linguistics, we examined features of the Modulation system in Vietnamese. This analysis has taken into consideration factors related to Vietnamese culture, language context, cultural and social context, as well as language typology (Hongying, 2020). The method of describing language is the main research method we use in this study. Specifically, in this article, the linguistic features of discourse will be described at the sentence level to find out the characteristics of the modulation system in Vietnamese on the basis of analyzing the elements of Mood, Modality, and Person. After the interpersonal metafunctional features are described, we will propose some related translations (Hoang, 2005(Hoang, , 2012(Hoang, , 2018(Hoang, , 2020. Regarding data for Vietnamese Modulation analysis, we collected from formal online newspapers such as Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, and Phap Luat. Then the data would be collected for analysis as well as evidence for the authors' perspectives. The data for suggestions of legal translation is the Singapore Companies Act, which was first enacted on December 29, 1967, and has been revised over the years. We use the last revised version dated 30/07/2020 as amended by Act No. 40 (Amended by Act 40 of 2018) and the up-to-date consolidated text on the Singapore government website (https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/).

Obligation in SFG
From the SFG's theoretical framework associated with the features of the Modality system in language, we described the Modulation system in Vietnamese in spite of the fact that the features of the functional system in each language are disparate. They depend on language typology, linguistic features, and even the culture, which significantly influence on the functional systems of language (Iimura, 2021, p. 30). For that reason, we based on the linguistic features of the Modulation system established by Halliday in the SFG theoretical framework in order to describe this system in Vietnamese, but we have taken into consideration these factors such as language typology and Vietnamese culture. The key aspect of SFG is to focus on the functions of language mainly, so the Modulation system in Vietnamese has been described based on the functions of language in Vietnamese.
As mentioned above, Inclination and Obligation are two subcategories of Modulation. In English, they can be realized in one of two ways: by finite modal operators or by expanding the Predicate (in the passive form or by an adjective) (M.A. K Halliday, 1994, p. 181). Within the scope of this article, we will conduct a survey of the commands in Vietnamese that perform two basic functions of the language "invite" and "ask for" to describe the Modulation in the Modality system. Specifically, in this paper, we discussed (1) the definitions of Obligation and Inclination in Vietnamese, (2) the categories of Obligation and Inclination, (3) the realization of Obligation and Inclination in Vietnamese.

(i) The subcategories and realization
First of all, the definition of Obligation in Modulation has been discussed on the SFG level. It can be said that it is impossible to define the concept of Obligation based on dictionaries. The reason is that Obligation is the linguistic term in Halliday's systemic functional theory paradigm. Therefore, it must be understood from the SFG perspective. Basically, Obligations in the SFG demand goods and services in a language that is not polarized. Accordingly, the Obligations in the propositions must be performed by using intermediate modes of expression between two polarities: prescribing and proscribing. In other words, Obligation in the Modality system might be the modes of expression in which an utterance can require the receiver of the utterance to perform such a certain action. This definition is a base from which the subcategories of obligations are identified and explored.
In Vietnamese, a demanding clause that requires the addressee to perform such a specific action can be realized in several ways. Based on the surveyed data, Obligations can be realized by one of four methods: necessity, Obligation, permission, and expectation. When the addresser expresses the necessity, Obligation , or permission from the addressee, this means that the speaker gives an offer that makes the addressee do an action called the exchange of goods and services. As for permission, it might be a bit difficult to explain the reason why this category belongs in the system of obligations in Modulation. The permission is understood as a bidirectional relationship "demand -give". The requesting party needs to obtain the giver's permission to perform the action. This means that the demanding party has a certain obligation to comply with the action. This is the reason for why Iimura (2021) included the permission in the Modulation system in Japanese (Iimura, 2021). This phenomenon tends to be quite similar in Vietnamese. Therefore, it can be concluded that Obligations in the Vietnamese Modulation system include four basic subcategories: Necessity, Obligation, Permission, and Expectation. Obligations in Vietnamese Modulation can be summarized according to Table 3 below.

Necessity Obligation
Spokesperson needs something done (action) The receiver of utterances must take action because of the requirements of laws, rules, or social norms.

Permission Expectation
The spokesperson authorizes the receiver to take action, and the person receiving the utterance will not be able to take action without permission.
Expect someone to take action In terms of ways of realization of Obligation in Vietnamese, according to the research by Bui (2004), Modality in Vietnamese is expressed in a variety of ways, including intonation, modal verbs, idioms, particles (auxiliaries), modal adverbs, interjections, and structures, sentence structure, etc., (Bui, 2004). These study results have been proved in previous studies by Vietnamese linguistic researchers. These findings are based on which the Modulation system in Vietnamese has been discussed in this article.
As mentioned in a theoretical framework, we have applied SFG as the basis for describing Vietnamese grammar. According to SFG, Modality is realized through 'verbs' by one of two methods: finite modal operator and predicate expansion (verb). Thus, in this paper, the Modulation realization in Vietnamese has been mainly described through 'verbs'. The ignorance of other means, such as idioms, particles, adverbs, interjections, etc., is a limitation when investigating the Modality system in Vietnamese clauses. However, these means will be described in the SFG on a different level and may function differently. Therefore, the article only focuses on describing the Modulation system in Vietnamese based on SFG but mainly focuses on two methods: finite modal operator and predicate expansion.
According to the study by Bui (2004), modal verbs play an important role in performing modal functions in a Vietnamese clause. Basing on the previous studies by Vietnamese linguistic authors such as Diep Quang Ban (Diep, 1996 ), Nguyen Kim Than, Cao Xuan Hao (Cao, 1991), Dao Van Hung (Dao, 2000), it is stated that the means of realizing the Modulation function in Vietnamese have only one method: modal verbs, which are considered equivalent to the finite verbs in English. These modal verbs are preceded by one or more verbs that perform the following predicate function. The below table presents the means of realizing Obligation in Vietnamese.

Table 3. Means of realizing Obligations in Vietnamese
The function of the utterance Obligation The method of realization Demand (Imperative clause) Necessity cần (need), nên (should),… Obligation phải, cần phải, buộc phải (must), bảo (ask), đề nghị (suggest), yêu cầu (require)… Permission Có thể (may, might), được, được phép (be allowed to),… Expectation Hy vọng (hope), mong mỏi, chờ đợi (expect),,…* As for groups of verbs that belong to the subcategory of expectation, they are not considered as modal verbs by traditional Vietnamese linguists. Diep (1996) demonstrated that modal verbs are ones that are not independent in normal conditions and do not have full lexical meaning. However, the verbs in the subcategory of expectation are lexical words with full lexical meaning and do not need to be followed by another word to add meaning (Diep, 1996, pp. 65-68). Nevertheless, from our personal perspective, these words perform the function of Modulation realization. The reason is that these words obviously function in the roles of the exchange of goods and services in imperative clauses in an utterance.

(i) The subcategories of inclination and the means of realization
The inclination is to express the intention or willingness of the speaker to perform the action. The function of Inclination expression is to "offer" goods and services in utterances in clauses.
In human communication activities, speakers show their inclination, which means showing what they want to do or tend to do. According to the results of previous studies and our survey of data on Vietnamese newspapers, it can be seen that the semantic scope of propensity modulation in Vietnamese will manifest through two subcategories: intention and willingness. The semantic domain of the subcategory of Modulation in Vietnamese can be summarized in Table 5 below.

Willingness Intention
Willingness to take action Proposed plan, intention to take action The intention is a subcategory of the inclination to realize the speaker's "receiving" speech function when he or she makes a tentative plan to perform an action. Correspondingly, willingness is a subcategory of the inclination to realize the speech function of a speaker's "receiving" when he or she presents a willingness to perform an action in exchange for goods services. Thus, it can be seen that there are two subtypes of inclination in the Vietnamese Modulation system: intention and plan. Similar to Obligation, Inclination is also realized by a sole form of modal verbs, which is finite modal operators, which are called modal verbs in traditional Vietnamese linguists. However, according to Ban (1996), there are still some words that are not completely modal verbs, such as chuẩn bị (prepare). The means of realizing inclination can be basically systematized in Table 6 below: 118 Table 5.

Means of realizing the Inclination in Vietnamese
The function of the utterance

Some suggestions of English -Vietnamese legal translation
The factor that contributes to the success of translation from the source language to the target one is to determine the equivalence. The determination of equivalence is different, and it depends on the theoretical framework. In legal translation, this is extremely essential. The reason is that the translation version can serve as a basis for determining the rights and obligations of the entities in legal relations. National or international authorized organizations tend to rely on the translated versions in order to make final decisions on resolving some No matter what the theoretical framework applied to determine the equivalence in translation, the essential element that should be taken into consideration in translation is "the functions of language". In other words, a translation should be based on the functions of language, not forms or semantic meanings of vocabulary. Modulation plays such an important role in legal discourse, especially in contracts or legal documents regarding the rights and duties of related entities. The forms of Modulation will determine the rights and obligations of the parties in the implementation and settlement of disputes related to these types of discourse.
Therefore, the function of language is the factor that translators should be highly aware of in translation. When it comes to translating from English to Vietnamese or vice versa, the components of the Modulation system should be highlighted in order to determine the relevance and the degree of relevance. The recognition of relevant forms of two languages in terms of functions might contribute to the success of the complete translated versions. For example, in the Singapore Companies Act, Shall may be an Obligation or an Inclination. In case Shall is an Inclination and express the meaning of commitment, Shall can be translated into cam kết.

Comparison of the functions of Modulation to determine translation equivalence
The translators' perception of pertinence in terms of a functional level is essential, so the methodology of the determination of relevance in translation from a functional perspective is really important. To do that, the translator needs to determine the functions of the language in both the target language and the source language. However, it is unlikely that there is complete functional equivalence. For that reason, the level of relevance mentioned in this paper is the most likely relevant case by case.
In the scope of this article, we do not aim to give suggestions for all components of the modulation system; we just give some recommendations. The evaluation of the function of language is up to the translator. Specifically, the translator needs to determine the function of an element of Modulation in the target and source languages in advance when performing a legal translation. When the translator has selected the functional equivalence, he should choose the vocabulary in the target language to replace the source language.
This feature can be demonstrated more clearly by an example in the Singapore Companies Act. Through a semantic investigation of the word "shall" in the Act, it can be seen that Shall can be used for various meanings. Not only does it refers to a sense of Obligation, Shall can be also interpreted as Must, May, Will (future meaning), or present simple tense. Thus, these various meanings should be taken into consideration in translation. Specifically, when Shall demonstrates duty or Obligation, it can be translated into phải, có trách nhiệm, có nghĩa vụ in 120 Vietnamese.
The relevance in the context of culture and the context of a situation It seems to be fundamental for the translator to recognize the function of language and determine functional equivalence. More importantly, the context of a culture of genres of discourse should be highly taken into consideration. Genre and Register are two contexts that strongly govern language usage. The language representation will be different when located in the contexts of a situation (register) and the context of culture (genre). Therefore, the translator also needs to investigate and comprehend these contexts when choosing vocabulary during language translation.
During the translation process, the translator tends to translate the discourse as a whole rather than just a few sentences in a discourse. Thus, the context of the situation will directly affect the translator; as a result, the translator seems to automatically adjust the language of the translation to suit the context of the situation. However, the cultural context needs to be given more attention in the language translation process. The reason is that the cultural context often does not directly and strongly influence the use of language in discourse in comparison with the context of the situation. Thus, it is necessary for the translator to be aware of this and to pay attention in the process of making choices in the target text. The below sentence is a typical example that indicates the influence of cultural context and situational context on language usage. Ex12: "A director of a company who makes a solvency statement without having reasonable grounds for the opinions expressed in it shall be guilty of an offense and SHALL be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both. (Point 6, Article 7A, the Singapore Companies Act).

Conclusion
This article has contributed to introducing and explaining a small aspect of the interpersonal meta-function, which is the Modulation system in the Vietnamese. The Modulation system in Vietnamese is composed of two subcategories: Inclination and Obligation. The obligation is divided into four small subcategories: necessity, Obligation, permission, and expectation. Inclination consists of two small subcategories: Intention and Willingness. Obligation and inclination are both realized by finite modal operators, most of which are quite similar to modal verbs in traditional Vietnamese grammar.