  We use symbolic dynamics to study discrete-time dynamical systems with
multiple time delays. We exploit the concept of avoiding sets, which arise from
specific non-generating partitions of the phase space and restrict the
occurrence of certain symbol sequences related to the characteristics of the
dynamics. In particular, we show that the resulting forbidden sequences are
closely related to the time delays in the system. We present two applications
to coupled map lattices, namely (1) detecting synchronization and (2)
determining unknown values of the transmission delays in networks with possibly
directed and weighted connections and measurement noise. The method is
applicable to multi-dimensional as well as set-valued maps, and to networks
with time-varying delays and connection structure.
