In languages which distinguish the accusative and dative cases, it is clear from the actual usage whether a divalent verb takes a direct or indirect object. For example, the German eat takes a direct object ("ich esse ihn"), while help takes an indirect object ("ich helfe ihm").
How do you know what kind of object an English verb takes? Which case is the object pronoun in the phrase "I help him"?
Edit: I'm looking for a reason to say that it, without doubt, is an accusative or dative pronoun. The reason for the German example is that the English accusative and dative pronouns are degenerate, and it therefore is easy to claim something -- you can't disprove it with an example.
