A Modulator is part of the transmit (Tx) path of a photonics link. A photonics transmitter requires a laser to provide the optical signal on which to modulate the data waveform. That is the purpose of the Modulator, to modulate the incoming laser signal with the data signal.
The receive path uses either a photo-detector (AM modulation) or a phase discriminator (phase modulation) to recover the data signal from the transmitted lightwave signal being sent from a remote location over fiber. A Modulator is not used in the receive (Rx) path.
A Transceiver contains both Tx and Rx paths in a single package. It is becoming more and more common to have multiple Tx/Rx paths in a single transceiver package.