Both formal and functional linguists have developed models in which clauses and NPs can at least partly be analyzed in a similar fashion. But whereas formal approaches to grammar have concentrated on similarities between the (underlying) syntactic structure of the NP and the clause (e.g. Jackendoff 1977, Abney 1989), functional theories such as Functional Grammar have investigated parallels between the underlying semantic structure of the NP and clause (Rijkhoff 1989, 1992, 2002). This article has two main goals: [a] to present a revised and expanded version of the layered (semantic) NP/clause model presented in Rijkhoff (2002), and [b] to give synchronic and diachronic evidence in favour of this particular model.