English Semantics

When homonyms can occur in the same position in utterances, the result is lexical ambiguity, as in, for example, “I was on my way to the bank.” Of course, the ambiguity is not likely to be sustained in a longer discourse. A following utterance, for example, is likely to carry information about depositing or withdrawing money, on the one hand, or, on the other hand, fishing or boating. Quite often homonyms belong to different lexical categories and therefore do not give rise to ambiguity. For instance, seen is a form of the verb see while scene is an unrelated noun; feet is a plural noun with concrete reference, feat is a singular noun, rather abstract in nature; and so on.
Ambiguity occurs also because a longer linguistic form has a literal sense and a figurative sense.
Skeleton in the closet can mean ‘an unfortunate event that is kept a family secret.’ With this meaning skeleton in the closet is a single lexeme; with its ‘literal’ meaning it is a phrase composed of several lexemes.