  We present a methodology to characterize synchronization in time series based
on symbolic representations. A symbol is linked to a sequence of numbers
through the rank-order of its values. A representation of a time series results
after mapping all sequences into symbols. We propose a transcription scheme
between symbolic representations to study the dynamics of coupled systems. This
scheme allows us to use elements of group theory and to derive information
measures to assess the degree of synchronization. We apply our method to a
prototype non-linear system which displays a rich coupled dynamics.
