The paper deals with the scientific activity of the eminent Ukrainian linguist and translator Yosyp Adrianovich Bahmut (1905-1968), whose works were devoted to the formation of Ukrainian social and political vocabulary, as well as to the language and style of fiction and social and political literature translations into Ukrainian. Working together with L.A. Bulahovsky and M.T. Rylsky, Yosyp Bahmut was among those who revived the Ukrainian Slav philology tradition broken off in 20-30th, and furthered the «development of Ukrainian scientific language» (M. Rylsky), especially in the field of lexicology and lexicography. He stressed the normative linguistics’ role and insisted upon the highest possible faithfulness of scientific translation, in particular when it deals with idiomatic constructions and phraseology units. Y. Bahmut mentioned the necessity to develop the stylistic devices of the Ukrainian language and emphasized the social role of its standardization.