Modern semiempirical substance and structurc theories are very useful for the investigation of chemical trends of material properties of semiconductors and insulators. On the basis of the conception of the ionicity of mixed ionic-covalent chemical bonds, chemical trends of selected energetic, electric and elastic properties are described. The ionicity parameter, which can be derived from the static electronic dielectric constant or from valence band spectra, is built into models for different effects (e.g. the chemical shift of electronic binding energies). In this way chemical information is taken into account in an explicit manner and good agreement with experimental results is obtained. With the help of the ionicity and related parameters the separation of fourfold from sixfold coordinated crystal structures, the relative stability of the wurtzite and zincblende structure, and the problem of different bonding angles in different SiO, modifications are invest,igated. An extension of this conception with the help of the pseudopotential theory leads t o some interesting conclusions conccrning structural disorder effects in amorphous SE miconductors