20. The method of claim 18 , wherein a first overflow signal, whose value is dependent on a reset, and a second overflow signal, whose value is dependent on the modulo operation with the integrator word, are generated, and wherein the signal pulses in the first and second comparison signals are generated as a function of the first and second overflow signals, respectively.
18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the selective outputting further comprises: forwarding the first reference word if in a predetermined time period a number of signal pulses in the first comparison signal is less than a number of signal pulses in the second comparison signal; forwarding the second reference word if in the predetermined time period the number of signal pulses in the first comparison signal is greater than the number of signal pulses in the second comparison signal; or forwarding the phase error word if in the predetermined time period the number of signal pulses in the first comparison signal is equal to the number of signal pulses in the second comparison signal.