Generally, the trend seems to be for programming languages to grow in size. I don't mean the size of the standard library, but the actual features and syntax of the language. A lot of languages may have started out as relatively small but with every iteration of the language, the syntax and features grow. Of course, small languages can also include complexity too.

So does the size of the language matter? Does it follow (in general) that the larger the language, the greater the risk of complexity of the language?

And in case you are interested, here are some thoughts from Wirth on the subject [1]:

> "In order to do a good experience [learning a language], you have to have a clean language with a good structure concentrating on the essential concepts and not being snowed in. That is my primary objection to the commercial languages – they’re simply too huge, and they’re so huge that nobody can understand them in their entirety...I think the industry thinks it’s a big asset to have a complex thing that increases their reputation of being sophisticated"

[1] https://amturing.acm.org/pdf/WirthTuringTranscript.pdf