AbstractLet $$\mathrm{pr}(K_{n}, G)$$
pr
(
K
n
,
G
)
be the maximum number of colors in an edge-coloring of $$K_{n}$$
K
n
with no properly colored copy of G. For a family $${\mathcal {F}}$$
F
of graphs, let $$\mathrm{ex}(n, {\mathcal {F}})$$
ex
(
n
,
F
)
be the maximum number of edges in a graph G on n vertices which does not contain any graphs in $${\mathcal {F}}$$
F
as subgraphs. In this paper, we show that $$\mathrm{pr}(K_{n}, G)-\mathrm{ex}(n, \mathcal {G'})=o(n^{2}), $$
pr
(
K
n
,
G
)
-
ex
(
n
,
G
′
)
=
o
(
n
2
)
,
where $$\mathcal {G'}=\{G-M: M \text { is a matching of }G\}$$
G
′
=
{
G
-
M
:
M
is a matching of
G
}
. Furthermore, we determine the value of $$\mathrm{pr}(K_{n}, P_{l})$$
pr
(
K
n
,
P
l
)
for sufficiently large n and the exact value of $$\mathrm{pr}(K_{n}, G)$$
pr
(
K
n
,
G
)
, where G is $$C_{5}, C_{6}$$
C
5
,
C
6
and $$K_{4}^{-}$$
K
4
-
, respectively. Also, we give an upper bound and a lower bound of $$\mathrm{pr}(K_{n}, K_{2,3})$$
pr
(
K
n
,
K
2
,
3
)
.