Question

He proposed a set of sentences called the performatives, sentences that were designed to do something; to do an action and constantives, sentences that were used to say something were explored by philosophers of language to a great extent.

Any feedback on the above sentence. I am not sure if the commas are appropriate of if I have to use a semi colon somewhere. Thanks for your feedback.

Answer 1

Hmmm... I believe the commas are at a wrong place. A comma makes a short break in your text. Here, it is a little odd to read: "called the performatives *short break* sentences".
Thus, if I were you, I'd put the commas after the word "sentences" or simply delete the first one after "performatives" since the reader knows that you're talking about sentences. Besides I'd put a dot after "to do an action" followed by "And".
Here's how I'd have done it:
He proposed a set of sentences, called the performatives, that were designed to do something; do an action. And constantives sentences, that were used to say something. Eventually, these sentences were explored by philosophers of language to a great exetend.

Answer 2

There are very specific rules for commas, and they are currently being rewritten. In the past they were for verbal breaks in a sentence or dependent fragments, but since English does this naturally they tend to be overused. Thus they are being sifted for reading clarity. Comma Rules: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/

Semicolons are used to show sentences that should be read together, but are two complete thoughts; That is why they are literally a period AND a comma. General Punctuation Rules: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/566/01/ (Semicolons are included)

Rewrite:
He proposed a set of sentences: One type - called performatives - were designed to do actions, while the other - called constantives - were used to express ideas. These were explored by linguistic philosophers to great extent.

You almost have too many ideas even for the three sentences here. I would suggest breaking the topic down further. Something like: 1) Set of sentences 2)Performatives 3)Constantives 4)Significance.

Answer 3

The dashes I used in your rewrite are called "m-dashes" and are used much like commas or parenthesis - to encapsulate emphases.